Comfort ‘Blanket’
This review originally ran in The Battalion, Texas A&M’s student newspaper. Please, please read this graphic novel. It’s one of my favorite things ever.
For Craig Thompson, love is a wonderful thing filled with pain and joy. The innocence of first love is countered at every turn by the haunting warnings of temptation that the Bible has instilled in him since his childhood.
In “Blankets,” an almost 600 page autobiographical comic book, Thompson recounts his first love, among other memories of his childhood.
“Blankets” begins plainly, with a simple panel that reads: “When we were young, my little brother Phil and I shared the same bed.”
The simplicity of this panel is a good indication of what comes next in Thompson’s touching rendition of his youth.
Throughout the graphic novel, the reader is introduced to a wide variety of characters that orbit around young Thompson. From his wild brother Phil to his sometimes cruel father, Thompson reflects upon the past with enough sincerity that readers will be tempted to take everything he says for granted, no questions asked.
“Blankets’” main story surrounds Thompson’s emotionally turbulent first love. Thompson meets Raina at church camp and together each finds in the other the comfort and peace that they had been lacking. Thompson had always been an outsider and in Raina he discovers a friend who makes everything else obsolete.
From their first encounter, each finds a serenity that they embrace along with each other. Thompson details his descent into love with a poetic meter that will remind readers of a love song. Not all things are rosy for the young lovers, though. Thompson is constantly at odds with his upbringings and battles with the dual nature of love — striving to find a balance between worship and lust.
The use of beautifully symbolic illustrations help to tie together his love story with the undertones of his faith. The saga of Thompson and Raina’s love is broken up with reflections about growing up with his brother and their misadventures.
Thompson’s illustrations perfectly convey the innocence of childhood with an almost cartoonish atmosphere that is well balanced with the many touches of intricate detail and deftly drawn emotions. Fans of pop art will appreciate the beauty found in the simplicity of Thompson’s art.
The simplicity of snow is turned into masterful artwork with clever panel layouts and creative uses of negative space. The black and white nature of the illustrations actually work well to convey the black and white nature of remembrance. The past is the only thing clear to Thompson as he looks back on his year with Raina.
“Blankets” is a story of love and loss that is not only an easy read, but a poignant one as well. Everybody who has experienced the bitterness of a relationship that they once thought would last forever only to have it fall apart will be touched as they read Thompson’s autobiography.
“Blankets” is, in short, an excellent read that manages to offer incredible insight into the life of a normal teenager experiencing life, in all its wonderful pain.
