Kim Thompson

I just heard about the death of Kim Thompson. I don't know what to say, really, except how sorry I am. He was extremely kind to me over the years in so many small ways. Comics are better now than they used to be, at least in part because he helped to make them so.

When I was first trying to break into comics, I prepared some funny animal samples with the intention of submitting them to Critters, which Kim used to edit. I got cold feet before I submitted them, and it was a couple more years before I sent anything else to Fantagraphics. I did eventually get to meet Kim, after Fantagraphics had published a couple of comics I'd drawn. He was kind enough to move out of his own bedroom when I visited Seattle in 1990 so I would have somewhere to sleep, which I thought then, and think now, was above and beyond the call of duty for any publisher. Later, when I would buy books from Fantagraphics at conventions, Kim would usually let me walk away with a freebie. He was always kind to me, and that will be my lasting impression of him.

Let's make some good comics for Kim. It's what he would have wanted.