Fear was my gateway to becoming interested in stories. My nanny growing up, a Scottish expat named Jackie with a fox pelt of red hair and a manic...
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Lea Anna, August 30, 2012 (view all comments by Lea Anna)
An absolutely gorgeous tome of a graphic novel. This was the first graphic novel I ever read and I fell head over heels for it. It's a deeply personal autobiography that sucks you in. Thompson's illustrations are beautiful and the way he interprets the world opens your eyes. I point to this whenever people claim they "don't read comics/grapic novels" because it's the opposite of what people expect. I highly recommend it.
aprilskiver, January 2, 2010 (view all comments by aprilskiver)
For me, this graphic novel really signified the change in the genre during the 00s from superheros only to full blown literature.
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Danielley, January 1, 2010 (view all comments by Danielley)
Beautifully written and illustrated, this is the book I wish I had when I was sixteen, and is the kind of book I would want my own teenager to read as well. I literally could not put this book down.
Some of the topics may be sensitive or mature for some readers (molestation, teenage love and sexuality), and as a graphic novel, be prepared for images to accompany these topics. It is in no way pornographic, however.
Blankets is a bittersweet story of a boy becoming a man, falling in love for the first time, and struggling with his religious beliefs.
The relationship between the Craig and his girlfriend is very sweet, and thankfully very honest and healthy: something many books geared for teens abysmally fail at.
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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.
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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.
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Blankets: An Illustrated Novel
Used Trade Paper
Craig Thompson
0 stars -
0 reviews
$21.00
In Stock
Product details
592 pages
Top Shelf Productions -
English9781891830433
Reviews:
"Review A Day"
by Chris Bolton, Powells.com,
"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." (read the entire Powells.com review)
"Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"[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."
"Review"
by Gordon Flagg, Booklist (Starred 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..."
"Review"
by Peter Siegel, www.artbomb.net,
"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."
"Review"
by Library Journal,
"[A] masterly telling of a moving, deeply human story....More accessible than Chunky Rice, this is highly recommended for adult collections."
"Review"
by Neil Gaiman, award-winning writer and creator of The Sandman,
"I thought it was moving, tender, beautifully drawn, painfully honest, and probably the most important graphic novel since Jimmy Corrigan."
"Review"
by Brian Michael Bendis, writer and creator of Powers and Fortune & Glory,
"Blankets officially confirms Craig Thompson's place in the world of graphic novels as one of the true greats."
"Review"
by Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-Winner,
"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."
"Review"
by Bob Schreck, Group Editor, DC Comics,
"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."
"Review"
by Andrew D. Arnold, Time.comix,
"[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."
"Review"
by Alan David Doane, ComicBookGalaxy.com,
"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)"
"Review"
by Chris Ryall, MoviePoopShoot.com,
"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."
"Review"
by Greg McElhatton, iComics.com,
"[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."
"Review"
by James Poniewozik, Time,
"[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."
"Synopsis"
by Ingram,
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"
by chrisb@powells.com,
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.
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