I’m taking a week off from Jim and Ted’s adventures for something a little different…

I was saddened to read that the brilliant cartoonist Richard Thompson passed away a few days ago. I never met the man, but his brilliant comics and scratchy pen work have been a huge inspiration to me. If you’re unfamiliar, Richard Thompson created the comic strip Cul De Sac as well as a million other illustrations, magazine covers, and some brilliant caricatures. His book “The Art of Richard Thompson” was partly my inspiration for the Daily Drawing I did last year.

So I offer this sketch of Petey and Alice in memory of him. When I first discovered his work, I was disappointed by the deceptively simple characters and sketchy backgrounds. But the more I saw the more I realized how deliberate every line was. I was utterly amazed when I realized how utterly good he was. (My Petey and Alice tribute took far longer to draw than I anticipated, and Alice doesn’t look cute enough. She’s always cute, even when she’s annoying Petey.)