Raymond Briggs in his studio at home in Sussex. Photo from The Times by EYEVINE.
Award winning cartoonist and one of the early creators of the graphic novel genre, Raymond Briggs, passed away on August 10th. He was 88. The cause of death was pneumonia.
"Briggs' family said he died Tuesday, and thanked staff at Royal Sussex County Hospital, near his home in southern England, “for their kind and thoughtful care of Raymond in his final weeks.”
Creator of the dark nuclear war graphic novel When The Wind Blows, he was best known for The Snowman (1978) which was tuned into an animated special four years later and is now a British Christmas tradition.
Always interested in the medium of comics to tell stories, he talked about encountering the disdain for the medium when applying to art school in this 2004 Guardian interview:
"'I never thought about being a gold-framed gallery artist and was only pushed into painting when I went to art school. I went there wanting to do cartoons.' Briggs remembers the interviewer at Wimbledon College of Art nearly exploding when he expressed this ambition. 'He went purple in the face and said, ‘Good God, is that all you want!’ It really was the lowest of the low and so I started to paint because when you’re only 15 and the big man with a beard tells you what to do, you generally do it.'"
"Among his many, many achievements, he was one of the first people in the UK to foresee the maturity of the comic book form and inaugurate the graphic novel – alongside the efforts of Posy Simmonds‘ newspaper-serialised comic novel work, and Bryan Talbot’s efforts of a mature comic novel with Luthor Arkwright in the UK independent press and underground comic scenes.
"Explorations of more mature material – whilst retaining the open charm of his earlier work – began with Gentleman Jim (1980), about the life of a toilet cleaner with a wild imagination and then developed further with his standout cold-war graphic novel When the Wind Blows (1982) about a retired couple trying to survive the aftermath of a nuclear attack. Both of these books could be regarded as among the first of what has since become a wave of graphic novels to be published in the UK.
"When the Wind Blows proved to be both controversial and influential. In 1986 it was adapted into a chilling animated film, directed by Jimmy Murakami and starring Peggy Ashcroft and John Mills, and was met with wide critical acclaim."
"He is survived by his step-children and step-grandchildren, who said in a statement that he 'will be deeply missed.'
"'We know that Raymond’s books were loved by and touched millions of people around the world, who will be sad to hear this news,' they added. 'Drawings from fans — especially children’s drawings — inspired by his books were treasured by Raymond, and pinned up on the wall of his studio.'"
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