Ted Richards 1946 - 2023

 

Underground cartoonist Ted Richards, creator of "Dopin' Dan" comix and a member of the Air Pirates underground comix group which challenged Disney, died on April 21, 2023. The cause was lung cancer according to his daughter, Miranda Lee Richards. 

 

 From The Daily Cartoonist:

"Ted Richards was one of the funniest and greatest of the 1970s underground cartoonists. 

"His most famous characters were Dopin’ Dan, E. Z. Wolf, and The Forty Year Old Hippie.

"Ted never fit in with the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll aspect of underground comix; well, maybe the drugs (mostly marijuana). Ted’s comix were funny, some of the funniest of the underground era, with a great comic art style.

"After getting a start in Cincinnati in 1969 Ted migrated to San Francisco hooking up with the hostile, anti-establishment Berkeley Tribe (and meeting Bobby London there). Later in 1970 Ted and Bobby met with Shari Flenniken and the Disney Corp-obsessed Dan O’Neill at the Sky River Festival a bit east of Seattle Washington, and soon after Gary Hallgren. These talents joined to form the famous Air Pirates.

"Throughout the early 1970s, the high times of the comix industry, Ted contributed to a number of anthology comix books as well as his own Dopin’ Dan books. 

 

 

"By the late 1970s the 'comix' scene was dying. Ted found a place in Skateboarder Magazine with a Mellow Cat page from 1978 – 1981. From there he segued into computer software designing while still dipping a brush into an ink bottle on occasion."

 

Memorial services are pending.