Blankets by Craig Thompson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Blankets
Book Review: A Revelation
Summary: 5 Stars
Every now and then, something major happens in your life. Sometimes it's an event, sometimes it's a work of art. In the case of a work of art, "Blankets" had the effect on me that few things have. I can only compare its impact with that of other works of art, in different arts, like "American Beauty", "Six Feet Under", The Eels, Tori Amos, Nirvana, JD Salinger, and many other artists whose work have both inspired and reassured me that I wasn't alone in the way I saw the world and lived my life.
"Blankets" is definitely a landmark in the history of comics/cartoons and visual arts. It is because it does things that neither cinema nor literature can do, and I believe that in between cinema and literature is precisely where comics/cartoons fall. Books like "Blankets" give the genre its "letters of nobility" as they say in French, and it reveals the incredible power that the art can convey.
I have rarely been so touched by any kind of art before in my life, even musically, and I cannot tell you enough about this wonderful book. It is not easy to read, it will scar your soul, but on the whole, it will taste and feel like life, and you'll know you're not alone.
Craig Thompson is a genius and I'm still thinking about the amazing narrative skills he showed in "Blankets"; terrific transitions, superb parallels, unbelievable imagery and coherence of thoughts.
If you like snow as much as I do, you will love it. If you don't, you will learn to. It's so beautiful, I won't even try to review that. You have to experience this book.
But be sure that this is not easy to read, and I mean that emotionally. It's indeed filled with real emotions, from more than just the main character, so much so that you will feel quite a lot throughout the book.
I won't even say anything about the plot or anything, just that you have to trust me and read this book. You won't regret it, and you will be touched.
Book Review: A Truly Amazing Experience
Summary: 5 Stars
This is going to be brief because I'm in agreement with most of the others here. It should be known that I never write reviews here on amazon, I've only written one before. Secondly, I rarely read, and when I do, it's hard for me to read for very long even if I enjoy it. Call it ADD, call it someone having trouble sitting in one place for too long, call it whatever you want. But I picked up this book and read it in one sitting. I've never done that.
Third, I don't like the majority of comic books out there. I find most of the writing to be corny, forced, and just plain laughable. The dialogue here flows naturally and feels entirely genuine. Beyond the writing, the art is some of the best I've ever seen. It's simple, but incredibly expressive and unique. Craig Thompson is also very gifted when he frames (or composes) his scenes. It's almost like watching a film. He's got the pacing, editing, directing, and quality of "photography" down brilliantly.
I really had no idea there were comics (or "graphic novels") like this. I can't recommend this high enough. I will be lending the book to my friends and buying an extra copy for my library. Everyone should read this book. As well, I will be checking out the rest of the quality graphics novels ("Box Office Poison" and "Goodbye, Chunky Rice" for example) that I've missed. Thank you Craig Thompson for this book. I envy you for you have made a brilliant piece of work that will be remembered fondly by many. You can rest easy now!
Book Review: A brave new literary world
Summary: 5 Stars
While Craig Thompson's Blankets may not fit the technical definition of "miraculous" ("an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs"), it nonetheless evinces the most satisfactory intermedial aesthesis of American adolescence to date. I include as comparison even Mr. Clowes's deservingly successful Ghost World.Blankets touches emotionally closer Mr. Salinger's epochal Catcher in the Rye than to any extant graphic analogs: Mr. Thompson's autobiographical protagonist Craig is searching, like Holden Caulfield, for the boundary between mortal and divine experience. The interpenetrating layers of narrative, metaphor and Biblical allegory not only recall the magical, hormone-induced brilliant haze of youth, but furthermore suggest an avenue by which the reader may begin to apprehend the nature of the divine synchronic (the white blankets of winter) such as it exists in the diachrony of human experience (ink on the page; footprints in the snow).
One recalls Mr. Emerson's fateful address to Mr. Whitman: "I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which must yet have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. It has the best merits, namely, of fortifying and encouraging."
Book Review: A comic book--sorry, "graphic novel"--for people with low expectations
Summary: 1 Stars
That Blankets is an "illustrated novel" read mostly by people who never read comics says a lot about why it is so revered. It garnered recognition for its use of serious subject matter in what is generally perceived as a children's medium. Its popularity puts it in the hands of librarians whose conception of comics is fantasy superhero books for kids, so of course they think: how clever to use an unlikely and underappreciated medium like comics to a tell a coming-of-age story.
But Blankets' coming-of-age story is trite and overreaching, not to mention painfully earnest. It strives to speak for a generation of losers and loners by being as bland and overly earnest as possible. The type of reader who loves this is also the type of reader wont to call it "achingly beautiful."
Look, I grew up a wimp in the Midwest, too. But I don't need to read yet another self-indulgent auto-bio comic about it just to validate my existence. EVERYONE has loved and lost, and stories about love can be sharp and powerful. But Craig Thompson offers only cliched sentimentality and manipulative heartstring-tugging, not one original insight on adolescence or lost love.
Why not read some Daniel Clowes, a much sharper observer of adolescent angst (and I'm not just talking about Ghost World)? Or try Peter Bagge, whose Hate comics start off as a goofy case study of nineties suspended adolescence slackers then evolves into a terrifically insightful depiction of truly growing up. Or Lynda Barry's many illuminating examinations of childhood. And then why not wash the earnestness out of your mouth with Johnny Ryan's gloriously nihilistic Angry Youth Comix?
Book Review: A comics masterpiece.
Summary: 5 Stars
If Will Eisner had been born in the 1970's and grew up listening to The Pixies, he may have been Craig Thompson. That's jumbo praise, and it's not given lightly. Barely a half a decade into his career, Thompson is already a fully fleshed writer and artist, a genius of the artform of cartooning.
BLANKETS, published by Top Shelf Productions (bless `em) is a mammoth undertaking, a near-600 page graphic novel about first love (and its loss), faith (and its loss), growing up (and away) from both nature and nurture, finding oneself and figuring out one's place in the universe. Sounds heavy, right? Well, it is, but it's also poetic and gentle, more about how subtle nuances can shake and shape foundations.
Thompson's previous book, 1999's GOODBYE, CHUNKY RICE dealt with similar subjects, but on a much smaller scale and in a more allegorical, cartoony style. BLANKETS is a far more realistic (but impressionistic), semi autobiographical tale. As good as CHUNKY RICE is (and it's great), it only hinted at the abilities of this artist. Actually, the 2000 Top Shelf Small Batch book, BIBLE DOODLES (now out of print, but well worth tracking down) had more of the swooping richness that defines BLANKETS.
Where some cartoonists would use (and have used) sexual child abuse as the sole theme of a book, Thompson merely uses it (in only a handful of pages) as one of many defining elements of a complex adolescence. The harrowing experience is not trivialized nor exploited, but given a resonance that colors the protagonists feelings and actions as he grows older. It's rare that comics can color life with its inherent shades of gray rather than the usual stark black and white to which we're used (even in color comics).
BLANKETS has already received much praise, often compared to the works of Chris Ware, which I think does Thompson a disservice. His work is so much more organic and vital, far from the mechanical sterility and precision of Ware's work, which frankly leaves me cold more often than not. While Ware keeps the reader at arm's length, a passive observer removed from the story, Thompson creates a warm, inviting environment. His lush brush strokes, swirling sense of design, masterful characterization and peerless pacing make BLANKETS a completely sensual experience.
I know, I know, I'm heaping superlative upon superlative, but this is not something I often do. The fact is, this is one of the best examples of the comics medium I've ever read. If I were one of those nutty zen masters with only ten books to my name, BLANKETS would be one of them.