Blankets

Craig Thompson's Blankets was an strange read. Almost immediately into reading I picked up on a high sense of melodrama. The story kept me constantly on edge of whether I actually enjoyed it or not. Thompson's ability to seamlessly integrate the reality with the imagination in the beginning of the first chapter were very interesting. Specifically page 16 where their Dad opens the bed in the cubby hole and to the child the bed looks like the jaws of a vicious alligator. The idea of furniture becoming monsters was something I could relate to from my childhood. In a way that scene got me enticed in the story very quickly. The page following it Thompson uses the negative space on the page to create a nice stark focus on the last panel which he gave no hard edges to show a sense of despair sinking in.

The realization of how tight Thompson was surrounded by Christianity became very apparent in an odd humorous way. Near the end of the book on page 516 there's a scene where two adults talk about how one kid who went to art school after taking a figure drawing class became homosexual. The panel where the gentleman says "Homosexuality" is so wonderfully drawn. The two adults are so sorrowful and serious and upset at the idea of homosexuality. At the same time in an amazing contrast Thompson's face reads the expression, "Wow these people are ridiculous." What really amazed me was how I could read that expression even though his face is so simply drawn.

Thompson definitely captured a lot of emotion in Blankets. What I think makes me think I liked the book was how he was able to do it with such a simplistic art style, yet at the same time there were moments where the art style was anything but simple. However, I'm not sure if I'm the biggest fan of just how emotional the book gets at points. Especially parts of the end of the book... it just got a bit too... over dramatic.