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Bob Laughlin passed away Sunday. Bob was one of those cartoonists who was as good as it gets—but labored in pretty much obscurity. Bob worked on the Monty Hale comic book, had his own strip Cuffy and assisted on the inking of Heathcliff. But, it all came together on his brilliantly genius creation Kitz -n’ Katz, the sublime strips about a black "kat" and a white "kat" who didn’t know themselves which was who, so to speak. Probably too artsy,too gentle, too charming, too creative, too surreal, too cute, too poetic, too sophisticated, too silly, too sweet all together to find a broad audience the feline’s adventures appeared in only a half dozen or so hand-bound publications and about the same number of an Eclipse Comics series.

Patrick McDonnell tells me how sweet and self-effacing Bob himself was. Bob resisted Patrick’s urgings to join the National Cartoonist Society because he didn’t feel he was worthy. The truth was that with Kitz -n’ Katz Bob’s work transcended 99% of his fellow cartoonists work.

A memorial service will be held Friday, May 19th at 2:00 at the Munson-Lovetree Funeral Home 235 Main Str. Southbury, CT.