Blankets : Craig Thompson

I will be moving into more recent work this week with Blankets, an autobiographical graphic novel by Craig Thompson.

What struck me right away when reading Blankets was how engaging Craig can make a mundane, personal story. It's easy to forget that many of the childhood tales he relates in the novel are those that would likely be considered boring in any other medium. However, Craig uses his expert paneling and illustration skills to draw us into the action and make us engaged in the childhood play.

Craig's mastery of the comic medium also shines in how he shows his perception of the world. His childhood church school teacher, for example, shifts from a rosy, plump old woman to a looming, shadowed figure depending on what she is teaching.

Similarly, Craig's depictions of himself range from scratchy, ink-brushed and spiky drawings when he is upset, to beautiful, curving abstractions when happy.

These radical visual shifts in Blankets were what really struck me as something relatable in the novel. Representing emotion this way illustrates how everyone feels when our internal words run rampant--about the good or the bad--and how we feel our entire self completely changes.

These changes in the drawing style of Blankets also force the reader to empathize more with Craig's plight. We are psychologically tuned to find curves friendly and sharp angles more upsetting and dangerous, and the drawings use this to make us feel what comic Craig feels.

After reading Blankets I'm excited to dive into more of Craig Thompson's work, as he can really use the comics medium to its full potential.

Comments

European Comics: Blacksad

Today I read the first book of Blacksad , an edgy French comic written by Juan Diaz Canales and illustrated by Juanjo Guarnido. The comics follow a panther detective through a series of anthropomorphic noir mysteries. I really enjoyed Blacksad . The story is a fairly standard mystery, but Blacksad's voice is engaging and authentic as a noir narrator, and the artwork is amazing. I felt that the art style was especially effective because it helps immediately establish character personalities--the criminals are rats and scaly creatures, the sheriff is a border collie, etc. I also tend to find that in noir movies or comics all the characters tend to look the same (all the men are square-jawed and serious, the women attractive and curvy) and the style of Blacksad helped prevent this from happening for me. Guarnido also does a fantastic job at using different shot angles and engaging acting within the panels. I enjoy this kind of visual storytelling much ...

The Future of Comics: Electric Sheep

When I opened The First Word of Patrick Farley's Electric Sheep comics , I was expecting a standard webcomic. I was very surprised that instead of formatting itself as a "normal" comic, The First Word is a sidescroller that uses simple lighting effects and motion design. This was entirely new to me–I thought standard webcomics were considered fairly modern, but this felt like something completely different. I enjoyed how Farley seemed to be playing around so much with new media to explore what a comic is. It really opened me up to think about what new possibilities might be with merging traditional storytelling and technology. The transitions were especially amazing to me, like the stream of different animals evolving. I did think Farley went very over-the-top with the lighting effects when sex came into play (I found the comic hard to take seriously at that point), but overall, the use of art was definitely something to study. One area where the comic f...

Manga: Bakuman

This post I re-read Bakuman, a semi-autobiographical manga about two boys trying to make it big in the manga industry, written by Tsugumi Obha and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. Re-reading Bakuman was especially interesting for me because the first time I read it was early in high school when I was having big dreams and thinking about going into art school, and now that I'm reading it again, I'm a junior in illustration starting to actively look for jobs and internships. One part of Bakuman that I can especially relate to now is when Moritaka and Akito move from being the "big fish in a small pond" as the best creatives in their high school, to being a part of the "real world" art industry and having to make it among professionals. I was the best artist in my relatively small high school as well, and though it's easy to intellectually recognize that things will be harder in a larger art community, I think it's almost impossible to completely p...

Lauren's Literature of the Graphic Narrative

Search This Blog