At the Eric Lappegard benefit planning meeting tonight, someone brought flyers for a free movie that Eric is in called Beerwolf, which is playing the Friday at Midnight at the Uptown Theater in Minneapolis. Apparently, Eric plays multiple roles. Here’s the flyer…
Uptown Theater
2906 Hennepin Ave S
Minneapolis
612.825.6006
MAP
There is a planning meeting for the Eric Lappegard benefit tonight (Tuesday August 7th) at 8:30PM at:
Diamond’s Coffee Shoppe
1618 Central Avenue Northeast
Minneapolis, MN
The benefit will be happening September 8th, and will include a gallery show at Altered Esthetics, a collection of Eric’s wonderful Schmapples strips, an anthology by it looks like somewhere around 40-50 cartoonists on the subject of cats, bikes and ninjas (deadline August 15th… you can still participate… details here!), a bike race and a music event.
The final week of my friend Eric Lappegard’s semi-autobiographical comic strip Schmapples, drawn the week before his ultimately fatal car accident, can now be seen on his website (as can the comic strip he had in the Comix issue of City Pages the week he died). I recommend reading Schmapples starting from the beginning if you haven’t already read them. You won’t want to miss them. Eric gave himself one hell of a conclusion. Life can be terrible, but sometimes art can be perfect.
Please note that we’ll have a complete Schmapples collection available at the benefit show for Eric’s family on September 8th at Altered Esthetics.
We are collecting any artwork we can find of Eric’s for inclusion in the upcoming anthology, and to house on his website. If you have any of his artwork and can scan it or loan it to us to scan, it would be much appreciated. Please send it to steven at stwalley.com, or contact me there to arrange something else. Thanks much.
We are also collecting photos of Eric. Please read the below for that.
Hi,
I’m a (biking) friend of Eric’s, and you and I have never met. But we’re compiling photographs of Eric doing things that he loved as a gift for his parents…to give them something to look back on their son being with his friends, happy.
If you could, in any way, send out a call to his Cartoonist Conspiracy friends for photos of Eric, it would be greatly appreciated. I just don’t know anyone he drew with, or knew through his art.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I hope you are doing about as well as the rest of us.
Thanks,
Kelly
mplsminx at gmail.com
I just recieved this information from Eric’s friend Mary Rogers:
Eric’s funeral is this Saturday (July 28) at 10 am at Augustana Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls, SD. A family visitation/memorial will be held at Miller’s funeral home Friday, July 27 from 5-7 pm. Eric will be buried at Hill’s of Rest Cemetery. Cindy Lappegard is offering the Lappegard home for out of town friends. Please nobody pay for a hotel room, their house otherwise will go unoccupied. Otherwise, there’s my parents home, and Erin Strait’s. Cindy would like a bicycle procession to ride in front of the hearse from the church to the cemetery. (It’s a haul, but we’re all in shape, right?) I think this is a great idea, we’ll wrangle up some bikes in SF if you can’t bring your own. Cindy says she will also post this same
information on the caringbridge site, so check that in case I get something wrong here. And I think we all should find time to have a drink at the Top Hat, Eric’s favorite Sioux Falls bar. Here’s Cindy’s email: clappegard2 at msn.com if you want to stay at the Lappegard house. Don’t be shy, she’s a very sweet woman who really wants his friends to be there. Sounds like we’re all on for the benefit.-Mary
maryrogers37 at hotmail.com
Augustana Lutheran Church
MAP
235 N Prairie Ave
Sioux Falls, SD 57104
(605) 338-1672
Fellow cartoonist, cyclist, and all around wonderful person Eric Lappegard passed away on July 23rd, 2007 from complications after a car accident that had left him paralyzed earlier this month. Eric was a charming fella, full of passion and enthusiasm, and talented as hell. Please take the time to check out some of his wonderful comics and get a glimpse of what we’ve lost.
Eric’s several communities of friends here in Minneapolis are putting together a day-long benefit/celebration of the life of Eric on SEPTEMBER 8th, 2007 which will include an “Alley Cat” bike race, an art show at Altered Esthetics gallery(www.alteredesthetics.com), silent auction, music, and more. All money will go towards Eric’s parents to help pay for the remaining hospital bills, etc.
We here at the Cartoonists Conspiracy are doing our part by putting together an anthology and the art show- AND THAT’S WHERE YOU COME IN!
The anthology we are now accepting submissions for is to be called: “ALLEY CAT: CATS ON BIKES(with Ninjas) a tribute to Eric Lappegard”
The anthology’s themes and your submissions are encouraged to be as wild and varied as Eric’s interests(cats, bikes, ninjas, veganism, beer, or ANY COMBINATION THEREOF!).
THE SPECIFICS:
1) Contributions of one or two pages of comics/pin-ups. The book will be BLACK AND WHITE.
The DEADLINE is AUGUST 15th, 2007. PERIOD!
2) In addition to the book we will be auctioning off ALL the original art in the name of Eric. We must insist in order to contribute, you must be willing to have your original auctioned off.
3) The final size of the book will be the mini-comic “standard” of 8.5″x5.5″.
Your image will fit a 8″x5″ area. Think proportionately!
4) Kevin and Zander Cannon of BIG TIME ATTIC have graciously offered to scan any art work not submitted via email or disk. (and in fact, unless you live outside the MPLS/ST PAUL area, I think they’d prefer to scan to keep a consistency.)
Their offices are located at: Big Time Attic 1618 Central Ave NE, Suite 216 Minneapolis, MN 55413 (ph) 612-521-7423 (fx) 612-605-9216
4.5) For outlanders– Scanned images must be at 300DPI greyscale or 800DPI B&W We encourage you to pre-size to 8″x5″. They can be emailed to: Kevin at bigtimeattic.com
5) All orginal art must also be dropped-off/recieved via mail to BIG TIME ATTIC at the above address by the Friday, August 31st.
6) All contributors WILL receive a copy of the anthology, but we ask you consider either buying more anthologys/drinks/original art/prints at the tribute party since all money goes to Eric’s parents to pay for medical bills, etc.
Also we strongly encourage donations directly via:
Account of Eric Lappegard Voyager Bank 500 Marschall Road Shakopee, MN 55379
So there you have it! Get that ink to paper and get it to us as soon as you can. Any questions can be address to any of the below emails. Also, PLEASE forward this to any and all cartoonist friends/associates you have. And thank you!
Steven Stwalley– Steven at stwalley.com
Kevin Cannon– Kevin at bigtimeattic.com
Danno Klonowski– staplegenius at yahoo.com
The benefit will still be happening with all proceeds going to Eric’s family. More info soon.
Some recent updates on Eric, including info on how to send money his way and help out immediately (in the bottom post).
THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2007 07:31 PM, CDT
Today started out the same as yesterday. They had Eric sedated to help his lungs to continue to heal and to help him with his breathing. He is still on oxygen, but they have brought down the precentage he is receiving, so hopefully in the next couple of days they will be able to take to breathing tube out and he will be able to talk. He had 2 visitors today, Pastor Paul Hoffman from a church here in Seattle and Suzie Strait. He opened his eyes for both of them and was very alert when Suzie was here. He also squeezed their hands a little when asked too. You could tell he really enjoyed her visit. Suzie & Shawn Kock are going to go get his belongings out of the truck on Saturday and bring them to Seattle. Suzie has a garage we can store the items in for the time being. You don’t know how much we appreciate them for doing this. They gave Eric a bath and washed his hair today so he really looks great. I think the dirty hair was bothering him because he kept wanting one of us to scratch his head. Thank you for all your prayers, hopefully he will continue to make more improvements every day.
Cindy & family
FRIDAY, JULY 13, 2007 09:05 PM, CDT
Not much changed today over yesterday. Eric slept most of the day. They did not give him much meds to make him sleep. They wanted him to wake up a little, but he fooled them and slept anyway. They worked vigorously on his left lung, because that lung has fluid in it and they really wanted to get the fluid out. This evening when he did finally wake a little he kept asking for something. After much frustration on his part and ours and with the help of a alphabet board we finally figured out that he wanted some water. Even though he is not able to drink they did swab his mouth with some water and he enjoyed that. The doctor said it would probably be a few more days before he will be able to get the breathing tube out of his mouth. We also found the cartoon network on his tv so now he will be in heaven even if all he does is listen to it. Thank you everyone for your prayers and messages they mean a great deal to us.
Cindy & family
SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2007 11:59 AM, CDT
Eric didn’t sleep well last night. He was running a temperature during the night. Things are looking a little better today (a mother’s hope). They are going to sit him up in a chair today if he maintains his blood pressure. We will update you more later today on how his day went.
Many people have asked how they can help financially for Eric’s ongoing care & comfort. My uncle has established an account in Eric’s name at a bank in Minnesota. He tells me that donations can be made as follows:
Account of EricLappegard Voyager Bank
500 Marschall Road
Shakopee, MN 55379
We will keep you updated later today on his condition.
Cindy & family
As Danno mentioned previously, the Conspiracy and others will be organizing a benefit for Eric to help him out a bit. Eric is known for his passion for biking, music, and comics, and he has a lot of friends from all these interests… we’re having a meeting Tuesday that anyone who knows Eric and wants to help put together this benefit is encouraged to attend. I’ve started a thread on the message board here to help with organizing as well.
We’re going to meet and discuss this next Tuesday at 8:30PM at:
Diamond’s Coffee Shoppe
1618 Central Avenue Northeast
Minneapolis, MN
We’ll also be drawing a jam card to send his way. If you have something you’d like to send his way, we’ll also be collecting items for a care package. Your comics and mini-comics would be a great contribution to this.
Updates on Eric’s condition can be found here. If you know Eric, please take the time to sign the guest book and let Eric and his family know that they are in your thoughts.
Here are the details of the accident and Eric’s condition from that site:
Eric was in a one vehicle accident on July 7, 2007 somewhere between Spokane and Seattle Washington. He was on his way to Portland, OR to see his cousin Kendall. Still unsure of what exactly happened, we do know that he over corrected his driving and rolled the vehicle. Eric is in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit at this time. He severely injured his spine, at this time he is paralyzed from the chest down. He is able to move his arms, but not able to move his hands or fingers. He is having some respiratory problems so they have a tube in him to help him with his breathing. They also now have him sedated to help his lungs heal.
There has been one update on the journal there so far:
7-11-07
Today eric started the day off not much different than yesterday but as the evening came his breating has gotten a little better, hopeing to be off the vent soon. They started to reduce the medication that has him sedated so he is a little more awake. But trying to keep him calm. He HATES the vent! The nurse did some tests with his hands and we did see a little movement. These are all baby steps but in the right direction.
While you’re sending good thoughts Eric’s way, you should also check out his excellent recent comics… he’s been doing a daily on his site this year, and it is just great (go to the Schmapples Archive to see them).