The brilliant Richard Thompson, creator of Cul de Sac and Richard's Poor Almanac, passed away last week of complications from Parkinson's disease. Saying “artistic hero” sounds strange, but “Artist I grew up reading and looked up to as a kind of gold standard for what an artist should be especially the more I learned about him” is long-winded, so I will leave it at that. My heart aches for his family and many friends.

There have been many beautiful tributes written the last several days by the people who knew him best, which articulate his genius and humanity better than I ever could, as well as an outpouring of fans writing about their favorite Richard Thompson drawings. Though it’s impossible to pick a favorite, the Cul de Sac cartoon with The Picture With the Shark in It [see above] has a special place in my heart, since that is also my not-so-secret favorite painting at the National Gallery. Google-image-searching his cartoon brought me to this page on his blog, where I learned some fun facts about the painting (the guy getting his foot chewed off apparently “bragged about his shark misadventure incessantly, even featuring a disembodied foot on his coat of arms.” Who knew?!)

If you want to learn more about him, I suggest the superb Art of Richard Thompson, though if you are a friend of mine there’s a good chance I’ve already shoved a copy into your hands. And the documentary made about him a few years ago is also lovely, though near-impossible to view without weeping.