shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Original Essays | November 9, 2009

Jesse Bullington: IMG Abash'd the Devil Stood



I don't believe in evil. It's a word I use, certainly, because words are shortcuts and we all take the short way round from time to time, but that's... Continue »
  1. $10.49 Sale Trade Paper add to wish list

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$21.00
List price: $29.95
Used Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
2 Beaverton Graphic Novels- Nonfiction
1 Burnside Graphic Novels- General

This title in other formats:

Blankets: An Illustrated Novel

by Craig Thompson

Blankets: An Illustrated Novel Cover

Awards

Winner of the 2004 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album–New
Winner of the 2004 Eisner Award for Best Writer/Artist

Review-a-Day   (What is Review-a-Day?)

"It's a fast read, but Blankets is worth revisiting, if only to luxuriate in its astonishing imagery and pick up all the details you missed the first time when you were too eager to find out what happens next. Thompson's layouts are intricate and organic; instead of the rigid six- or eight-panel pages of standard comics, he varies the shape, size, even the borders of his panels, frequently achieving a collage-like effect that would simply be impossible in any other medium. Like the best comix stories, Blankets emphasizes the medium's exclusive strengths. Thompson's illustrations pack more beauty and power than much prose or poetry, and the frozen images allow the reader's gaze to linger, to examine, to climb inside the picture in ways that film cannot." Chris Bolton, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

From the author of the critically-acclaimed and best-selling graphic novel, Good-Bye, Chunky Rice, comes Craig Thompson's all-new masterpiece. Blankets — the most anticipated graphic novel of the year — is already being regarded as THE defining moment of this comix generation.

Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith. A profound and utterly beautiful work.

Review:

"[A] rare combination of sincerity, pictorial lyricism and taste. His exceptional drawings balance representational precision with a bold and wonderfully expressive line for pages of ingenious, inventively composed and poignant imagery." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"[This] eagerly awaited follow-up [to Good-bye, Chunky Rice]...is more ambitious, more accomplished, and more accessible....[A] genuine graphic novel, with a universal appeal..." Gordon Flagg, Booklist (Starred Review)

Review:

"Blankets is one of the most ambitious original graphic novels ever produced in the medium....More importantly, though, [it] is a poignant document of lessons in discovery and self-realization both universal and enlightening." Peter Siegel, www.artbomb.net

Review:

"[A] masterly telling of a moving, deeply human story....More accessible than Chunky Rice, this is highly recommended for adult collections." Library Journal

Review:

"I thought it was moving, tender, beautifully drawn, painfully honest, and probably the most important graphic novel since Jimmy Corrigan." Neil Gaiman, award-winning writer and creator of The Sandman

Review:

"Blankets officially confirms Craig Thompson's place in the world of graphic novels as one of the true greats." Brian Michael Bendis, writer and creator of Powers and Fortune & Glory

Review:

"In this book, Craig Thompson emerges as a young comics master. In the purest narrative form he tells a highly charged personal story, crammed with pain, discovery, hi-jinx, penance, religious conviction and its loss...and along comes self-loathing. In this story of family and first love, that which goes awry in life, goes well as art. Mr. Thompson is slyly self-effacing as he bowls us over with his mix of skills. His expert blending of words and pictures and resonant silences makes for a transcendent kind of story-telling that grabs you as you read it and stays with you after you put it down. I'd call that literature." Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-Winner

Review:

"Craig has documented his youth in the most honest of ways. Not too warm and fuzzy nor too harsh and cold, showing us the insecurities of growing up in what is often a strange and sometimes painful world. The perfect marriage of words and pictures. It's as if Francios Truffaut had written and drawn his own comic with the artistry of Will Eisner. His sense of timing is impeccable, always knowing when not to hit you with a heavy hand. It's the genuine article." Bob Schreck, Group Editor, DC Comics

Review:

"[T]his book [is] indeed gifted and destined for a great future....Blankets has the thematic sophistication, emotional sweep and beauty of (visual) language that mark the best novels of any kind....Blankets is a great American novel." Andrew D. Arnold, Time.comix

Review:

"Blankets doesn't push the medium's potential forward the way Maus did....What it does do is set a new standard for longform autobiographical comics work, proving that a graphic novel can be both long and intimate, sprawling and intensely personal. (Grade: 5/5)" Alan David Doane, ComicBookGalaxy.com

Review:

"The art is more expressive than detailed and yet you never fail to see the emotion he's trying to convey....Blankets is a wonderfully expressive and touching look back at the years when every feeling we had was at its most raw, most affecting and most formative." Chris Ryall, MoviePoopShoot.com

Review:

"[A] huge step forward for Thompson's writing, showing a tremendous level of maturity for such a young creator. A great graphic novel needs to have writing and art that works well together, and that's just what we have in Blankets." Greg McElhatton, iComics.com

Review:

"[A] bittersweet meditation on family, faith, loss and memory. Thompson complements it with rapturous drawings of winter in northern Michigan and Wisconsin, a season that for all its harshness can be — like Blankets — achingly beautiful." James Poniewozik, Time

Synopsis:

Top Shelf is proud to be publishing the next big graphic novel from Craig Thompson. Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith.

Synopsis:

At 592 pages, Blankets may well be the single largest graphic novel ever published without being serialized first. Wrapped in the landscape of a blustery Wisconsin winter, Blankets explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers growing up in the isolated country, and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. A profound and utterly beautiful work from Craig Thompson.

About the Author

Craig Thompson was born in Traverse City, Michigan, in 1975 and raised outside a small town in central Wisconsin. His first graphic novel, Good-Bye, Chunky Rice, won the 1999 Harvey Award for Best New Talent along with nominations for Eisner, Ignatz, Firecracker, and Eagle awards. While working on Blankets, Craig paid the bills writing, drawing, and designing comics and illustrations for Nickelodeon, DC, Dark Horse, Marvel, OWL, National Geographic Kids, and a myriad of other publications. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
nic, November 18, 2007 (view all comments by nic)
First love, less than perfect parents, religion, sexual molestation, snow, the midwest, sibling relationships, bible camp, adolescence, disability, the woods... Craig Thompson's graphic novel is a graceful story of a boy growing up.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(13 of 20 readers found this comment helpful)
crowyhead, October 31, 2007 (view all comments by crowyhead)
An absolutely AMAZING graphic novel about growing up and coming of age -- especially about coming of age in a small, fundamentalist community. The artwork is beautiful and suits the subject wonderfully, and the story is touching and well told.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(16 of 25 readers found this comment helpful)
astroix, January 1, 2007 (view all comments by astroix)
Craig Thompson's "Blankets" is an extraordinary autobiographical sketch which shares the experience of growing up in a rural, conservative, fundamentalist Christian world. The author's spiritual awakening and rebellion against the status quo are detailed in a series of beautiful images. This graphic novel seamlessly integrates flowing images with panels to tell the story. Coming-of-age is a central part of this story, yet Thompson manages to hit on subjects which resonate beyond the "Catcher and the Rye" group. In short, beautiful story, innovative and unique graphics.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(23 of 44 readers found this comment helpful)
View all 4 comments

Product Details

ISBN:
9781891830433
Author:
Thompson, Craig
Publisher:
Top Shelf Productions
Location:
Marietta, Ga.
Subject:
General
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Family
Subject:
Graphic Novels
Subject:
First loves
Subject:
Graphic Novels - General
Subject:
Man-woman relationships
Copyright:
Publication Date:
July 2003
Binding:
Paperback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
592
Dimensions:
9.59x6.40x1.69 in. 2.78 lbs.

Other books you might like

  1. $8.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Good-Bye, Chunky Rice

    Craig Thompson
  2. $13.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  3. $9.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  4. $12.50 Used Hardcover add to wish list
  5. $8.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  6. $7.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Complete Geisha

    Andi Watson

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.