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A review by silvae
Blankets by Craig Thompson
2.0
TW: child abuse, child molestation, family neglect, religious trauma, graphic (hah!) visual depictions of masturbation/nudity, bullying, anti gay rhetoric, ableism, racism
Blankets has been sitting on my shelf for a solid 2.5 years now, waiting to be read. Halfway through this time period I came across a detailed critique of Thompson regarding his other work Habibi, which further put me off reading his autobiographical work. Nonetheless, I wanted to know what all the fuss with Blankets was about, as it does often get mentioned in graphic novel discussions and has surely had an impact on how autobiographical visual storytelling is handled these days.
Thompson's art style is great - his bold linework and decision to ditch the constricting panels alltogether from time to time make for an impressive reading experience both emotionally and physically (the book has almost 600 pages and my edition has a hard cover). Sadly I couldn't find myself connecting to the author as a character at all, as the author tried so hard to tell a story of love and loss of faith, but failed to fully flesh out either plot. While the blurb made me think that he would confront us with 592 pages of his journey in and out of faith, we are instead met with a large focus on a love story that in the end did not play as large a role in his loss of faith as one might assume.
Of course, we are dealing with an autobiographical story here instead of a fictional one, but I can't help but feel frustrated by the fact that seemingly half of the book focuses on his two weeks with Raina, with his loss of faith being shoved into the final 1-2 chapters. For what it's worth, we don't even learn all that much about Raina, though, in a sense, neither did he.
I can see that many people who are in similar positions as Craig Thompson - ostracized for various reasons, struggling with their faith, terrified of taking the first steps into a life of art - may relate to Blankets. I was not one of them, and would instead urge you to look at other (shorter!) autobiographical works first - Spinning (Tillie Walden), Held (flix - sadly only available in German), Ordinary Victories (Larcenet), Stitches (Small) managed to leave lasting impressions on me.
Blankets has been sitting on my shelf for a solid 2.5 years now, waiting to be read. Halfway through this time period I came across a detailed critique of Thompson regarding his other work Habibi, which further put me off reading his autobiographical work. Nonetheless, I wanted to know what all the fuss with Blankets was about, as it does often get mentioned in graphic novel discussions and has surely had an impact on how autobiographical visual storytelling is handled these days.
Thompson's art style is great - his bold linework and decision to ditch the constricting panels alltogether from time to time make for an impressive reading experience both emotionally and physically (the book has almost 600 pages and my edition has a hard cover). Sadly I couldn't find myself connecting to the author as a character at all, as the author tried so hard to tell a story of love and loss of faith, but failed to fully flesh out either plot. While the blurb made me think that he would confront us with 592 pages of his journey in and out of faith, we are instead met with a large focus on a love story that in the end did not play as large a role in his loss of faith as one might assume.
Of course, we are dealing with an autobiographical story here instead of a fictional one, but I can't help but feel frustrated by the fact that seemingly half of the book focuses on his two weeks with Raina, with his loss of faith being shoved into the final 1-2 chapters. For what it's worth, we don't even learn all that much about Raina, though, in a sense, neither did he.
I can see that many people who are in similar positions as Craig Thompson - ostracized for various reasons, struggling with their faith, terrified of taking the first steps into a life of art - may relate to Blankets. I was not one of them, and would instead urge you to look at other (shorter!) autobiographical works first - Spinning (Tillie Walden), Held (flix - sadly only available in German), Ordinary Victories (Larcenet), Stitches (Small) managed to leave lasting impressions on me.