"blankets" by craig thompson appreciation thread

[jordanmichael]

i just read a 582 page romance graphic novel, "blankets". craig thompson is fucking amazing.

[Lalitree]

Yes he is, I have "Goodbye Chunky Rice" and it's amazing.

[jordanmichael]

Yes he is, I have "Goodbye Chunky Rice" and it's amazing.

is it worth the $10? i am going to a major con in philly in june, so i'll probably pick it up there.

[Nicholson]

It's worth the $15 that is its actual cost, that's how good it is.

Way better than Blankets, in my opinion.

[dieblucasdie]

Yeah, way better than Blankets.  Blankets is good, but a bit too emo.

[Michael]

Goodbye Chunky Rice is one of the most heartbreaking things ever.

Blankets, I don't know. I could never quite figure out my problem with it. It was too sprawling or something. I liked it ok, but was pretty disappointed by it, too.

[jordanmichael]

i am going to defend the ending. blankets is a true romance comic. romance is not chick flicks. he goes out and walks away. if you talk to craig thompson, he has not gotten back in contact with raina. i'll admit, i am young and know little of life and love. one thing i have learned is that in life you get little closure. not everything has the "an officer and a gentleman" ending where richard gere will come and carry you out. the book ends with craig walking out alone in the snow. it was a highly anticlimactic. life (mine at least) tends to be anticlimactic. romance isn't necessarily richard gere coming and sweeping you off your feet. i always defined the romance genre as glorifying realistic aspects as life. craig thompson romanticized his childhood, his first love, and his relationship with god by writing a graphic novel about it. stuff like that doesn't really have a set ending. your childhood does technically end, but it molds you into who you become for the rest of your life, especially in craig thompsons case. your relationship with god literally lasts your entire life, from birth to death. it only makes sense that this book will end the way it did, with craig thompsons walking out into bleak, clear, unidentifyable snow.

[peacocks]

My boyfriend read blankets a while back and loved it.  ever since he's been trying to get me to read it.  I have never been into comic books(except for this one copy of batman I mysteriously acquired where robin dies, so I thought it might have some value someday but I learned that robin dies a few times so it won't) but seeing his interest in Blankets as well as his thing for frank miller stuff which is pretty cool, I can picture myself giving it a shot.  thank you LPtJ comic/graphic novel readers for helping me learn to respect and admire something I had originally dismissed!  

and now I know what to get him for a suprise present! thanks lalitree!

[jordanmichael]

My boyfriend read blankets a while back and loved it.  ever since he's been trying to get me to read it.  I have never been into comic books(except for this one copy of batman I mysteriously acquired where robin dies, so I thought it might have some value someday but I learned that robin dies a few times so it won't) but seeing his interest in Blankets as well as his thing for frank miller stuff which is pretty cool, I can picture myself giving it a shot.  thank you LPtJ comic/graphic novel readers for helping me learn to respect and admire something I had originally dismissed!  

and now I know what to get him for a suprise present! thanks lalitree!

batman #368 is the one i think you have. it is $14

[dieblucasdie]

that this book will end the way it did, with craig thompsons walking out into bleak, clear, unidentifyable snow.

Not to be Captain Obvious or anything, but that snow at the end is supposed to be a metaphor for the blank page, yes?  I just think the first-girlfriend-as-muse trope is a little juvenile.

[jordanmichael]

that this book will end the way it did, with craig thompsons walking out into bleak, clear, unidentifyable snow.

Not to be Captain Obvious or anything, but that snow at the end is supposed to be a metaphor for the blank page, yes?  I just think the first-girlfriend-as-muse trope is a little juvenile.

well you can look at it as a few things. i saw it as everything in front of him and clear and not marked yet, and everything behind him is clearly defined.

[ecoulage]

agreed on the amazingness.  has anyone heard the soundtrack to Blankets?  i think it's by a portland band called Tracker...is it worth picking up?

[Throoper]

has anyone else picked up his travelogue/sketchbook 'carnet de voyage?' it was kind of breathtaking. i mean, it was obviously written by thompson. there were moments where he talked about lonliness while travelling, and i chuckled about the fact that he definitely is the guy who wrote blankets. but the casual intimacy of the whole thing makes you feel almost guilty reading it. oh, and it will make you want to put pen to paper like nobody's busniness.

[jordanmichael]

agreed on the amazingness.  has anyone heard the soundtrack to Blankets?  i think it's by a portland band called Tracker...is it worth picking up?

i haven't heard it yet. on the subject of comics with soundtracks i will bring up coheed and cambria. "coheed and cambria" is actually a graphic novel they are righting, and their band is the soundtrack to it.

[leomartin6]

Blankets received considerable attention in the comics and mainstream book press; it was extremely well-received and eventually won numerous awards

[davy]

Wow.

[Good Intentions]

I think I know what broke the board.

[diesel_powered]

I'd just like to register my complaint that this necro wasn't the triumphant return of Jordan.

[dieblucasdie]

Stay on topic, guys, appreciate Blankets or don't post

[Greg Nog]

I'm actually surprised that I never popped into this thread to talk about my dislike for Blankets.  Guess I was trying to not be a dick!  Huh!

[G.C.R]

I like Blankets, but the whole "I had a beautiful girlfriend once upon a time" thing reminds me a bit much of socially dysfunctional cartoonists I know who are always talking about how women are so meeeean because they won't daaaate me.

[Greg Nog]

she was precious and magical and ill never forget how special it was that she was a dick to me, anyway im an atheist now lol

[FreddyKnuckles]

If blucas thinks something is too emo then it is probably to emo

[mixed cats]

I like Blankets, but the whole "I had a beautiful girlfriend once upon a time" thing reminds me a bit much of socially dysfunctional cartoonists I know who are always talking about how women are so meeeean because they won't daaaate me.

+1 (though for me it's more other nerd types than cartoonists)

[FreddyKnuckles]

See movie thread (or before videogames or after books or whatver it is called) for discussion of 500 days of summer.