This is sad!
Richard Thompson, widely acclaimed among his peers as the best all-around comic-strip creator working today, wont still be wearing that crown in six weeks. Thats because Thompson has decided to stop working as a comic-strip creator: He will end his beloved strip Cul de Sac on Sept. 23.
Thompson and his syndicate, Universal Uclick, are making the announcement Friday at 10 a.m. ET.
The Kansas City-based syndicate is informing newspaper editors in a letter that reads: The last year has been a struggle for Richard. Parkinson's disease, first diagnosed in 2009, has so weakened him that he is unable to meet the demands of a comic strip. For a time, he worked with another artist, but the deadlines became too much of a task.
Of the Parkinsons, Thompson, 54, says in a comment released by his syndicate: At first it didnt affect my drawing, but thats gradually changed. Last winter, I got an excellent cartoonist, Stacy Curtis, to ink my roughs, which was a great help. But now Ive gotten too unreliable to produce a daily strip.
Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/richard-thompson-ends-cul-de-sac-comic/2012/08/17/06a7fda6-e819-11e1-a3d2-2a05679928ef_blog.html