reading notes

by Craig Thompson

ISBN: 1891830430

I waited a long time for this book. I bought it when I went to MoCCA, and was lucky enough to meet Craig Thompson and get him to sign (and sketch!) my copy. He said he hoped that I enjoyed it — and, trying not to have a heart attack just talking to him, I said I was sure that I would.

I love it when something I look forward to turns out to be every bit as good as I was hoping it would be. Blankets lived up to all my expectations, and also managed to surprise me.

The story is autobiographical: we see young Craig playing and fighting with his brother, not fitting in at school, and falling in love for the first time. Craig doesn’t fit in. His family is somewhat poor; his parents are fundamentalist Christians; he and his brother are molested by their babysitter; he is a vegetarian and an artist in a rural farming community. He struggles to do the right thing, figure out what his feelings mean, and find purpose and meaning in his life.

Now, in the wrong hands, this is a story that could be cloying, maudlin, irritating, overdone, or even boring. But Thompson doesn’t hit any wrong notes. The scenes with the two young brothers imagining their shared bed as a ship at sea reveal the magic of childhood imagination. The fear and punishment (being sent to the cubbyhole; thrown into the shower together) and confusion (the babysitter) ring true, with the right amounts of edgy and creepy. Older Craig’s “outsider” status, at school and at Christian camp, reveal adolescent pain without getting into melodramatic adolescent angst. Then there is Raina, the girl Craig falls in love with. In telling the story of this first relationship, Thompson captures all the questioning, yearning, excitement, horror, and heart-pounding that goes on when teenagers find themselves saying “I love you” for the first time.

Thompson knows pacing, how to tell a good story, and he can draw. The art in this book is brilliant. It is printed in black and white, and drawn in a more realistic than cartoony style. He takes care with the level of detail on each page: sometimes the images are stark, others the illustration-like detail brings warmth to the scene. Whether it is a swirl of snow or a heap of blankets, Thompson conveys emotion visually as well as with his text. The best thing I can say about this book is that I can’t imagine this story told any other way.

If you grew up where it snowed, or ever questioned believing in God, or fell in love as a teenager — well, you will recognize bits of your (probably younger) self in this book. I find it amazing Thompson was able to create this and put it out there as such a well-told story. At nearly 600 pages, Blankets is a substantial book. It feels good to me that an artist was able to spend the time (and find a publisher) that was willing to let the story be everything it could.

If you are new to comics or graphic novels but the story sounds like one you would read in “regular” novel form, I urge you to give this book a try. You just may be surprised at what visual storytelling can do. If you are into comics and still haven’t read Thompson’s previous book (Good-bye Chunky Rice) you now have two great graphic novels to discover. Highly recommended. Go buy this book, ask for it at your favorite bookstore if you have to; they really ought to be carrying titles like this, whether they have a “graphic novels” section or not.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2003 at 4:03 pm and is filed under comics/graphic novels.