Rating: 
Summary: This is what a graphic novel should be
Review: This is incredible, one of the best books i have read this year. Personal, funny, and so familiar. Thompson takes the field of comics books to a higher level, more literature than funny books. I highly recommed this book to anyone and if they don't like it, too bad for them.
Rating:
Summary: one of the most incredible books in years...
Review: from hoarseandbuggy.blogspot.com:Look, I'm not one to gush or anything, but really, truly. This book is flat out one of the most... transcendental experiences of my life. It evokes all of the memories and feelings of ones youth, all the pain and joy, love and hate, courage and fear, and puts it all into perspective.
To be honest, I don't remember the last time I read something that brought out so much emotion, and caused me to really think about my life and all the experiences that have gotten me from there to here. I sat down to read one chapter of the thing, and ended up reading... well... all 500+ pages in one sitting.
I can't really recommend this book enough. And you can actually get a really good deal on both Blankets and Goodbye, Chunky Rice, Craig's first book, which is also phenomenal (and a great warm up for Blankets.)
Blankets is selling out in comic shops and book stores, so really, truly, don't wait, buy it now.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: WOW is all i have to say. This book was WONDERFUL! It was really thoughtful and well drawn. VERY long but VERY worth it. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a really great read. the cool part is that you can relate to this book because its situations are realistic. BUY THIS BOOK< EVEN IF YOURE JUST CONSIDERING IT!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Between the Blankets
Review: With strong works by such writers as Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore, comics are becoming more and more accepted in the reams of literature. However, for me, the books that really move me are the ones that are based more in reality. That is why I enjoy such graphic novels as Alex Robinson's Box Office Poison, Ed Brubaker's A Complete Lowlife, and Andi Watson's Breakfast After Noon. Blankets is an extraordinary addition to these books. This graphic novel deals with everything from childrens' stunted growth and development by zealot religious parents, the bangs of first love, the pain of seperation from the said love, and many other tidbits of mundane, but essential parts of people's lives. It is a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: bittersweet
Review: wow. what a truly affecting experience this book was. i found myself becoming quite emotional while reading through it. that may be because i can relate to some of the situations presented along the way. this is what the comic book medium is capable of. hopefully more people will read this and find that out. just beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: A brave new literary world
Review: 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."
Rating:
Summary: Not sure if this is Craig's autobiography or mine!
Review: This book is for anyone that grew up in a religious home, believed absolutely, and then came face to face with the truth of the situation. This book is beautifully illustrated and expertly told. Craig displays a knowledge of the subject well beyond the average church attender, pointing out the many flaws with mass marketed religion. Thoughts, feelings and emotions are expressed in beautiful new ways combining art and the written word. I must be honest I wanted to write this same book...but I had artists tell me it couldn't be done...well Craig has proved them all wrong. This is the coming-of-age story I wish I wrote. I would love to see this hit new heights for a graphic novel, for it is certainly much more than that.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant "Blankets" A Must-Read
Review: At long last, Craig Thompson returns and it was worth the wait. After wowing the comics world with his "Goodbye Chunky Rice" Thompson left us all wanting more. 'Rice' was a beautiful tale, a poignant little love story and one you could read over and over again and always find something new. It was cute and grotesque, charming and bittersweet, layered and fullfilling. A tough act to follow it would seem. But after devouring his latest (and prolific) illustrated novel "Blankets", we see that 'Rice' was just the tip of the iceburg. For "Blankets" is everything it should be and then some. Thompson's storytelling skills have skyrocketed to amazing new heights. His drawing skills, brilliant from the begining, continue to amaze and fascinate. Facial expressions, body gestures and scenery are beautifully crafted into each meticulously designed page. The narrative and dialogue are naturalistic and without the usual hint of drama that comes along with these types of stories. From all these somewhat technical aspects of the book, Thompson is no doubt in top form and at the top of his game. There is little to criticize here. He has, no doubt, transcended the genre while at the same time lifting it up to new heights. But what is most impressive here is the heart of this tale. Thompson isn't telling us a brand new story. On a very basic level, this is an angst teen romance. But how he tells it is key. He wraps his love story in memories of his childhood, his religious beliefs, his family. This, we come to see, is a love story about love. It is about first love. It is about brotherly love. It is about spiritual love. It is about all the complexities and nuances that come with all the different ways in which we love. Thompson avoids using his tale as a soap box to eloquently voice his hatred of the "popular kids". Nor does he candy-coat his childhood memories. Like so much of Thompsons work, it is a mix of joy and darkness. He never overstates to make a point. Such restraint is what sets his work miles apart from any other comic artist/storyteller out there. In one memorable scene, the two young brothers see static electricity in the blankets of the bed they share. These three pages (250-252) sum up the brilliance of this book and capture it's heart so perfectly. These are the passages that make you stop and think. To read over them too quickly would be cheating yourself of the full impact of this book. Like 'Rice' before it, "Blankets" demands to be read more than once. But I'll be happy if everyone read it at least once.
Rating:
Summary: the graphic novel that's not afraid to be a novel
Review: Much has been made in recent years of how the graphic novel-and as a result, the comic book-has matured and come into its own. This is indeed, true, as subject matter and approach in the comics industry has become much more fluid. Yet, most stories were still serialized before they were printed in book form, and the ones that struck out on their own and did it in one-go (including some by my own company, Oni Press), were significant, but not yet reaching the full breadth that the word "novel" implied. Enter Craig Thompson. Nearly five years ago, he released his first major work, GOODBYE CHUNKY RICE. It was an excellent piece of sequential fiction, but much like, say, the first album by Nirvana or Andi Watson's SKELETON KEY (or even THE COMPLETE GEISHA) or Todd Haynes' POISON, it was only a glimmer of what was to come. Since that time, Thompson has locked himself away and honed his first masterpiece-an ambitious narrative clocking in at nearly 600 pages. Sure, you can write it off as a coming of age story (a coming of age story in an art form that still is coming up with its standards for most literary genres, and thus still coming of age itself), but that would be to say THE BELL JAR is merely the story of a depressed poet or GOODFELLAS about a guy who gets an interesting job. BLANKETS is the story of an artist in a state of becoming, a boy walking down a road where people in the houses on either side are attempting to get him to stop and play in their yard. It's the tale of said boy figuring out how to stick to the middle, and stay true to himself. Semi-autobiographical, BLANKETS outstrips the standard coming-of-age novel by giving it a perspective that only the comic book would allow him. Not even in movies could the story of an artist have that artist's vision so expertly rendered (think of how, in CRUMB, Zwigoff had to look over Crumb's shoulder to see what the illustrator saw). While the narrative thread of BLANKETS is straightforward, Thompson uses his pen to bend the world he portrays. Thus, you can step into an abstract world in the short span of a panel, see it as Thompson sees it himself. And there you get what makes the difference. The story of a boy discovering who he will be is also a book where an artist discovers a new form of expression. And there we are, back to the beginning. This is a comic book that understands what a novel is, and a novel that has figured out how to be a comic book. There is going to be a lot of hype about this one, and the sorts of people who read and talk about "comix," needing the crooked letter to make them feel cooler, will likely come down on BLANKETS for not being cool enough, but ignore all that and trust yourself and trust the book. It's emotional and expressive and engrossing, and possibly the best thing you'll read this year-in any medium.
Rating:
Summary: I cried
Review: and I haven't cried in ages. Thank you Mr.Thompson.
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