Word has come out that Kim Thompson, long a key player at Fantagraphics Books and most relevant to this blog the editor of The Complete Peanuts series, has passed away from lung cancer.

I first met Kim a couple decades back, at a private game of Five Card Nancy during the San Diego Comic Con. Even though he was connected to some things with which I had some disagreements, I quickly found him affable, and he certainly cared about the comics (if you want to see his sensibility, pick up some issues of the offbeat funny animal anthology Critters.) i didn’t deal with him at all regularly until The Complete Peanuts, where he showed strong interest not only in making sure that everything was complete, but that it was as good as possible, seeking out help finding source for strips where they had copies but where the reproduction quality was a little off. He was the editor who eagerly approved the book Charle Brown’s Christmas Stocking (and chose for it that title, better than what I had offered it with)’ and again worked hard with attention to detail to make it the best little book it could be.

Others are posting far more personal reminiscences; I have none to offer. But he cared about the comics and he put the effort into treating them well, and that is good enough for me. Even on those simple terms, it was good he was around.

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