Graphic Novel - Blankets
Oct. 19th, 2005 02:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chenanceouBlankets
by Craig Thompson
I read Blankets while on the second half of my New York stay. I had heard about it from a friend in San Francisco who loved it (If I remember correctly: "It's the best graphic novel I ever read."), but I had failed to find it. Apparently Craig Thompson changed publishers and, being in between publishers, Blankets was also in between editions. I'd ask anyway - whenever I entered a comic book store - Do you have Blankets? I expected to hear a no and wasn't too disappointed when the men behind the different counters complied - sometimes adding the it's in between editions story. Then I heard a yes. This particular yes came from Forbidden Planet - the East Village comic mecca. I do meander, but the point is Blankets came to me wrapped in high expectations and with its own hard to get appeal, so it had a lot to live up to. I read it standing up against various walls in New York while waiting and on various stools while eating. This should tell you two things: 1) it's long; 2) it's damn good.
Blankets panel by Craig Thompson
It's a coming of age story (which, scorched by the dullness of The Catcher in the Rye, I had learnt to detest) that stays with you because of its delicacy and beauty. Perhaps because there's so much of it in the story, but it reminded me of country snow. You know what I'm talking about? The soft snow, all clean and fresh that you aren't afraid to catch with the tip of your tongue. I'm not trying to be poetic, but to convey how reading it made me feel.
I know what it is like to be the unique/different/weird child (try not being a 'beach person' in Rio) and I know what it is like to not know how to go about doing what you want with your life. I also know what it was like to love somebody in a way that wasn't truly understood by the object of my affection.
Blankets made me remember being young, but with a melancholic nostalgia that's grateful that particular brand of pain has (hopefully) been left in the past.
I do go on, don't I? What matters is that you should give Blankets a try.
Blankets panel by Craig Thompson
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-19 10:24 am (UTC)It is a beautiful take on so many threads: growing up different, falling in love, the self-destructiveness of youth, the relationship between brothers, and growing up Protestant. All of these resonated with me. He writes a psalm in praise of the glory of creation as embodied in her naked form! That just blew me away.
One of the people I heard back from was my friend Sam, who despite being younger than me used to draw comics and then converted from Protestantism to the Eastern Rite and now writes a series of books examining the Theology of the Body. If anyone would be good to talk to about Blankets, I figured, it would be him. I was not disappointed. The primary thing he took away from it was the way in which the divorce of Raina's parents led her to seek male approval from Craig. That's a layer I hadn't thought about at the time. (Though I think he was cheating himself, fixating on that.)
Blankets
Date: 2005-10-20 12:11 am (UTC)This is yet more evidence that comics can move you. This one did.
Re: Blankets
Date: 2005-10-20 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-19 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-20 12:13 am (UTC)I think I freaked the guy by my jubilant reaction.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-19 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-20 12:14 am (UTC)