Kim Thompson, co-publisher at Fantagraphics Books, died this morning from the lung cancer he'd been battling since last February. He was 57 years old and he passed with his wife Lynn at his side. His other partner (and friend of 3.6 decades) Gary Groth has posted a much better obit than I could ever assemble — so I'll just tell you a little about Kim…
Kim was a man of great humor and industry. He had a great laugh — a really great, from-the-gut laugh, the kind only found in people who love the world around them enough to find things funny.
The vast body of books of comic art he published, edited, nurtured and otherwise midwifed testify to how good he was at all he did. The overflowing shelf of Eisner Awards also makes the point, though not as well. Check out the books themselves.
He had a passion for presenting the best material Fantagraphics could get its mitts on and presenting it in the best possible way. I knew this before Carolyn and I started working with him to bring forth the collections of Walt Kelly's Pogo…but I don't think I expected to like working with Kim as much as I did. He met every problem with grand spirit and you could hear the gears whirring as he tried to figure out, "Okay, how do we solve this and make the book better?" That was always his first concern. I'm not sure he even had a second concern but if he did, it was a distant second. It's so sad to lose a guy like that. So sad.