Tributes to Kim Thompson are continuing to come in, most recently from Paul Baresh, Bob Burden, Drew Friedman, Francesca Ghermandhi, and Jim Woodring. Here's a bit of Woodring's:
Kim was a master of social jiu-jitsu. When a well-known sci-fi writer gratuitously insulted him, publicly and in terms that would have driven most people into a vengeful rage, Kim absorbed it with his well-known chuckle, effectively neutralizing the venom and making the writer look like even more of a jerk. But his unruffled exterior masked a passionate nature and a gift for lethal invective. Like Mark Twain, when he had a grievance he would sometimes express his true feelings in a self-gratifyingly unrestrained letter that would never be sent, followed by the calm, rational, and eminently professional response that was his official reply. In my archives is a copy of a magnificently unpublishable screed he wrote but never sent to a business acquaintance, a letter which still makes my head spin with its relentless onslaught of caustic virtuosity. He could have been a polemicist as good (and as savage) as Philip Wylie or Christopher Hitchens if he had chosen to.
Elsewhere:
—Columbia University's Rare Books and Manuscripts Library has acquired the archives of Al Jaffee. This is excellent news. I once had the opportunity to look at some of that work in person, and it was among the most impressive original comic art I've ever seen.
—Sky is Falling Dept. At Editor & Publisher, Rob Tornoe writes about the current difficulties facing aspiring syndicated newspaper cartoonists, and ICv2, Rob Salkowitz worries about the Amazon comics announcement.
—Philip Nel has conveniently gathered many of the best video interviews and other links related to Maurice Sendak.
—Salon interviews Alan Moore, but not about comics. Mostly he just talks about why Dan is wrong about crowd-funding.
—Burgin Streetman has posted the rest of her Tomi Ungerer interview.
—Sean Howe, the author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, talks with Dan Patterson about Marvel.
—Not Comics: That Dustin Hoffman video going around is very moving and all, but I prefer the one Martin Short made thirty years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuXYyc9UNv0
