Kim Thompson

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This article is about the comic-book publisher. For the American drummer, see Kimberly Thompson.
Kim Thompson
Fantagraphics Books
AwardsInkpot Award (2001)
Spouse(s)Lynn Emmert

Kim Thompson (September 25, 1956 – June 19, 2013) was an American

Fantagraphics Books. Along with co-publisher Gary Groth, Thompson used his position to further the cause of alternative comics in the American market. In addition, Thompson made it his business to bring the work of European
cartoonists to American readers.

Early life

Kim Thompson was born in Denmark in 1956.

Danish, and Thompson grew up speaking the language,[6] a skill which aided his later career as a translator of European comic books. (He was also fluent in French.)[6]

Thompson developed an interest in comics early in life, some of his favorites being the works of André Franquin, Maurice Tillieux,[5] and Jacques Tardi.[6] As a young man, Thompson was a frequent contributor to American superhero comic book letter columns, with letters published in (among others) Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Conan the Barbarian, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Marvel Spotlight, and Marvel-Two-in-One.[7] Early writing work by Thompson was published in the comics fanzine Omniverse fanzine in 1979.[3]

Career

Fantagraphics

Thompson moved to the United States in 1977, and soon met Groth through a mutual friend.[4] He joined Fantagraphics' staff in that year, and soon became a co-owner with Groth.[8] In 1978, Thompson saved Fantagraphics from bankruptcy by pouring his inheritance into the company's financial coffers.[9]

Thompson was a regular contributor to the industry magazine

Cerebus in early issues of The Comics Journal, Thompson (along with Groth) later took Sim to task in its pages for Sim's controversial statements about feminism and self-publishing.[10]

Thompson was also a regular contributor to the (now defunct) Fantagraphics-published magazine Amazing Heroes, writing for that journal from 1981 to 1987.[3]

Since Fantagraphics began publishing comics in 1982, Thompson edited many of the company's most popular titles, including

Zero Zero
.

Thompson's last major Fantagraphics release was a remastered and expanded new edition of Guy Peellaert's landmark graphic novel The Adventures of Jodelle (1966) for which Thompson also provided a new translation from the French.

Translator

A long-time champion of European comics, Thompson translated the work of a number of international cartoonists published by Fantagraphics, as well as material used in The Comics Journal. He was also the regular translator of the

Ignatz Series
co-published by Fantagraphics. Thompson described his translation work for Fantagraphics this way:

I translate pretty much every European foreign-language cartoonist we publish except for

Jason (Norwegian or French); Max (Spanish); and Martin Kellerman (Swedish). ... In case you're wondering, I don't actually speak all of those languages, but I can read them, more or less in some cases. ... Danish is my native language. Swedish and Norwegian are so close to Danish ... that with a little work any Dane can read them pretty well, as I do. I learned Spanish in high school and kept up with it. I lived for six years in Germany and also studied German in high school, so that stuck with me too. I lived for three years in Holland. Italian is my weakest language, I sort of plow my way through that thanks to French and Spanish and use of a dictionary — but all my Italian translations I always check with the authors anyway.[6]

Illness and death

On March 6, 2013, Thompson announced he had lung cancer and was taking a leave of absence from Fantagraphics to pursue treatment.[12] He died on June 19, 2013, at his home, at the age of 56, survived by his wife, Lynn Emmert, as well as his mother, father, and brother.[13][14]

Awards

Thompson was given an Inkpot Award in 2001.

He was a 1996

Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards
nominee for Best Editor for The Acme Novelty Library, Palestine, and Zero Zero.

In early October 2021, Kim was posthumously awarded the inaugural Tom Spurgeon Award at the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus’ (CXC) seventh festival. Fellow awardees (both also posthumous) included syndicate manager Mollie Slott and All-Negro Comics founder and publisher Orrin C. Evans. The Tom Spurgeon Award is aimed at recognizing the role of non-cartoonists — living and deceased — in supporting the broader medium.[15]

Tributes

Comics journalist Tom Spurgeon:

. . . Thompson has worked the last several years transforming the longtime alternative comics company he co-owns into a small but potent comics, art book, and graphic novel publishing house. . . . [H]e has been one of North America's most effective advocates for translated books from the rich French-language tradition. He is also a talented editor, a fine interviewer . . . and generally informed and involved when it comes to all aspects of how that company functions. If Fantagraphics were a car, Kim would be the guy in the jumpsuit and dirty fingernails constantly poking around under its hood.[5]

Comics critic R. Fiore:

If he had told you 36 years ago that he would one day be the publisher of

Charles Schulz, Walt Kelly, Carl Barks, Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Hergé, Jacques Tardi, and EC Comics
, together with much of the Mount Rushmore of a comics era yet undreamed of, you would have said, "Will this be before or after you've laid all the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders?" ... And yet it all came to pass. Above all, creatively speaking, his loss will be a terrible blow to French comics in English. ... Where even the best translations of comics French, up to and including the renowned work of Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge on Asterix, will come out somewhat stilted, Kim's come off as idiomatic and natural English. If you were Fantagraphics this skill was just there, like water in the tap.[16]

Bibliography

  • "Devoured By His Own Fantasies", introduction to Optimism of Youth: The Underground Work of Jack Jackson, Fantagraphics, 1991. (with Gary Groth)
  • "Introduction". in Mézières, Jean-Claude and Christin, Pierre. Valerian: The New Future Trilogy. New York: iBooks (2004). pp. 1–2.
    ISBN 0-7434-8674-9
    .

Translated works

Notes

  1. ^ Spurgeon, Tom. "Kim Thompson, 1956-2013," The Comics Reporter (June 28, 2013).
  2. ^ Cook, John. "Kim Thompson, 1956-2013: Fantagraphics co-publisher helped shape the comic book industry," GeekWire (June 19, 2013).
  3. ^ a b c Who's Who of American Comics Books, 1929–1999.
  4. ^ a b Matos, Michelangelo. "Saved by the Beagle," Seattle Arts (September 15, 2004).
  5. ^ a b c Spurgeon, Tom. "CR Holiday Interview #1: Kim Thompson," The Comics Reporter (December 22, 2008).
  6. ^ a b c d e Broadhead, Heidi. "Comics in Translation: A Conversation with Kim Thompson of Fantagraphics Books," Omnivoracious (July 03, 2009).
  7. ^ Smith, Stephen Scott Beau. "The LOCsmiths," Amazing Heroes #23 (May 15, 1983).
  8. ISBN 1-56097-738-8
  9. ^ Dean, Michael. "Comics Community Comes to Fantagraphics' Rescue." The Comics Journal #254 (July/August 2003).
  10. ^ The Comics Journal #174 (February 1995).
  11. The Comics Reporter
    . Retrieved March 15, 2010.
  12. ^ Ulin, David L. "Jacket Copy: Fantagraphics' co-publisher Kim Thompson has lung cancer," Los Angeles Times (Mar. 7, 2013).
  13. ^ Groth, Gary. "Kim Thompson, RIP," Fantagraphics.com (June 19, 2013).
  14. ^ Reid, Calvin. "Obituary: Kim Thompson, 1956-2013," Publishers Weekly (June 20, 2013).
  15. ^ Simons, Dean (5 October 2021). "Thompson, Slott, and Evans win the inaugural Tom Spurgeon Awards at CXC: Shary Flenniken, Alison Bechdel, and Robyn Smith were also honoured with CXC awards, the first all-woman sweep at the show". The Beat.
  16. ^ "Tributes to Kim Thompson ," The Comics Journal official website (June 24, 2013).

References

External links

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