Richard Thompson - Perhaps My Favorite Valentine Cartoon Ever

John and I are huge fans of the work of Richard Thompson, creator of Cul de Sac and Richard's Poor Almanac. I opened my gocomics today to find the above gem - perhaps my new favorite Valentine's Day Cartoon of all time. It's a perfect example of Richard's razor sharp, dry sense of humor and his wonderfully scratchy, deceptively simple looking, drawing style. I say deceptively simple because there is a lot of complexity there and he makes it look as though it were tossed off in a matter of minutes.

A couple of years ago Richard drew this beautiful little Alice Otterloop for John. We recently had it framed and it is hanging in state in John's inner sanctum, the innermost section of his studio, where he can gaze it in in awe and resentment everyday. Awe because Richard is a genius and resentment because Richard is too damn good to have had his drawing days shortened by the demon disease of Parkinson's.

Now would be a good time to post some important links to all things "Richard-y".

• You can read Cul de Sac classics and Richard's Poor Almanac every day on gocomics
• You can follow his humorous writings and some of his favorite strips on his blog
• You can order a copy of "Team Cul de Sac" the special book in his honor to combat Parkinson's - It's only filled with over 100 tribute cartoons from his fellow artists (Edison's pictured below)
• You can order the new "Complete Cul de Sac" Collection
• You can hightail it over to Ohio State University's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum opening March 22nd 2014 and check out an amazing joint show of the work of Richard Thompson and that other cartooning giant - what's his name again? - oh yes, Bill Watterson!