Blankets

For anyone who actually made it through my list of top ten albums of 2007, I mentioned that the packaging for the Menomena was pretty cool. The artwork was done by Craig Thompson, and I was interested enough in his work that I learned more about other things he's done. A few years ago, before I'd gotten seriously back into comics again (and I'm only partially seriously back into them now), he wrote a graphic memoir called Blankets. It received a lot of critical praise at the time, and after finishing it last night, I can say that the praise was justified. It's an incredibly personal tale of siblings, teen alienation, religious skepticism, first love, sexuality, and more. I don't know how this story could have been told in another format. Frankly, I never would have read it if it had been a regular book, or watched it had it been a movie.

Surely one reason I enjoyed it so much was because I could identify quite closely with the author. The primary story arc of Craig meeting the first girl he would ever get close to at a summer program hit very, very close to home. So it's certainly possible that this book won't do it for everyone, but if you've ever been that person who was two or three steps (or miles) outside the mainstream, you'll find something to appreciate here. Considering this was my first graphic novel/memoir outside the realm of fantasy or sci-fi, I enjoyed it immensely.