Thompson art for National Geographic's Everyday Science Explained

Yesterday, we took a look at the 2003 edition of the book New Everyday Science Explained, and I had a suspicion that the earlier Everyday Science Explained by Curt Suplee (National Geographic Society, 1996, ISBN 0-7922-3410-3) might have more images, and more in color (since Richard usually worked in color watercolor and never in grey washes that I can recall. I'm sure there's exceptions, but...)

As you'd expect from that opening, I was right, and thanks to a National Geographic contact, here are his illustrations in glorious color, along with a new dozen or so. More, bigger, and better!

 

Wasn't this version much nicer? Since they were already paying for full color pages, I have no idea why the publisher dropped the color on most of the images for the 2003 book.

Thompson art for National Geographic's New Everyday Science Explained

Yesterday would have been Richard's 62nd birthday. In honor of that, we've recently been told of a book where Richard contributed over a score of drawings, and we'll share some of them with you. Richard's drawings were used in the 1996 edition called Everyday Science Explained and then reprinted in 2003. His ability to do scientific cartoons was well established by this point as he'd been illustrating Why Things Are with Joel Achenbach for the Washington Post and Curt Suplee was a former science columnist for the paper. I don't recall seeing the originals to these, and don't know if they were in his archive when we were working on The Art of Richard Thompson.

In The New Everyday Science Explained, by Curt Suplee, National Geographic, 2003, ISBN 0-7922-7357-5, Richard Thompson is given credit for the following drawings (thanks to National Geographic collector Richard Kennedy for the list):

• p. 15 (bottom) Kicking soccer and bowling balls
• p. 20 Stepping from dinghy to dock
• p. 27 (left) Elastic vs. inelastic collisions with a tennis racket
• p. 30 (bottom) Car breaking down
• p. 32 (bottom) Archimedes on a lever lifting the world
• p. 68 Couple running on beach demonstrating convection of heat
• p. 76 (bottom) Man in elevator demonstrating acceleration
• p. 80 Bullet dropped and fired hit the ground simultaneously 
• p. 87 Couple demonstrating that opposites attract
• p. 94-95 House showing multiple motors
• p. 114 Man on sidewalk being bombarded by different electromagnetic signals
• p. 130 (bottom) Periodic table of elements in classroom setting
• p. 134 Man holding hoop with animals jumping through it showing the work of catalysts
• p. 144 Man adding water to glass tub of ingredients and creating a new person illustrating that our bodies are mostly water
• p. 168  (bottom) Fashion models on runway wearing barrels marked with artificial ingredients
• p. 186 Cafeteria "Build You Own PROTEIN at the Amino Acid Bar"
• p. 190 Hamsters on stadium seating holding panels that make a picture of a hamster
• p. 193 Three dogs showing chromosome transmittal to offspring
• p. 212 Flu viruses in front of "International Panel of Scientists"
• p. 237 (top) Man on assembly line demonstrating liver functions
• p. 244 Drawing of a person with body parts sized according to the number of sensory nerves they contain
• p. 246 Interior of head showing that images on the retina are upside down
• p. 264 Man in bed dreaming

We'll return to these two books and compare the contents of the 1996 and 2003 editions when we get a copy of the earlier book.

Amy and Richard Thompson help save local bookstore

One More Page Passes Fundraising Goal, Pays Bills

Airey

September 4 2019

https://www.arlnow.com/2019/09/04/one-more-page-passes-fundraising-goal-pays-bills/

"The highest bid item was an original cartoon by the late Richard Thompson, which was donated by his wife Amy Thompson — it sold for $1,111.50."

Lee Salem has died

Lee Salem, the man who convinced Richard to bring Cul de Sac to a wider audience than just the Washington Post passed away this weekend from a stroke.

His obituary can be found here:

Lee's Story

Lee Salem's Get Well Page August 22, 2019

https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/leesalemsgetwellpage

Danielle Corsetto remembers Richard via his original art

Danille Corsetto commented on some original Cul de Sac art she owns during her studio tour on her Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/dcorsetto , referring to it as among her 'fave original art!"

With her permission, we reproduce it here:

Cul de Sac comic strips and books auctioned to save bookstore

Several thousand dollars were raised today through auctions of Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac original art, books, and other works,to assist One More Page Bookstore in paying an unexpected large tax bill.

As the bookstore faced a Draconian tax increase, books Richard had signed before his death, along with 2 strips newly donated by Amy Thompson, sold to fans of the cartoonist, including one strip to local cartoonist Daniel Boris. A quick calculation is that Richard provided about $2500 in sales or 12.5% of the auction proceeds (but check the math before quoting me).

One More Page was dear to Richard, hosting him for their first booksigning (before the store had even opened), for his first Cul de Sac collection. After he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, the store held fundraisers for Team Cul de Sac to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Richard passed away just barely over three years ago.

The store's auction site described the original art as such:

American illustrator and cartoonist Richard Thompson was best known for his syndicated comic strip Cul de Sac. Richard received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 2010. We are huge fans of Richard's work and were thrilled when he agreed to do an event at OMP when we first opened. Over the years, he was a invaluable supporter, promoting OMP and signing countless books to be shipped to fans worldwide.

Richard's wife, Amy, generously donated this original artwork of a panel of Cul de Sac ("Trick or Treat" panel #111031), his strip which focused on a four-year-old girl, Alice Otterloop, and her daily life at preschool and at home. Cul de Sac was published in more than 70 newspapers by the fall of 2007 and was distributed nationally as both a daily and Sunday strip by Universal Press Syndicate.

Bill Watterson, created of Calvin and Hobbes, praised Thompson's work: 

"I thought the best newspaper comic strips were long gone, and I've never been happier to be wrong. Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac has it all—intelligence, gentle humor, a delightful way with words, and, most surprising of all, wonderful, wonderful drawings."

"Cul de Sac's whimsical take on the world and playful sense of language somehow gets funnier the more times you read it. Four-year-old Alice and her Blisshaven Preschool classmates will ring true to any parent. Doing projects in a cloud of glue and glitter, the little kids manage to reinterpret an otherwise incomprehensible world via their meandering, nonstop chatter. But I think my favorite character is Alice's older brother, Petey. A haunted, controlling milquetoast, he's surely one of the most neurotic kids to appear in comics. These children and their struggles are presented affectionately, and one of the things I like best about Cul de Sac is its natural warmth. Cul de Sac avoids both mawkishness and cynicism and instead finds genuine charm in its loopy appreciation of small events. Very few strips can hit this subtle note."