Blankets

Product Information

I grew up in this strict religious household where media was censored, but somehow violent media was not discouraged. So I grew up with all the Arnold films— Commando, Predator, all that stuff—that was all allowed to be consumed in the house, but anything that had a hint of sexuality was immediately shut down. For instance, Tom Hanks’ Big, I never saw that as a kid, because it’s implied that he had sex. a b Sims, Zach (October 5, 2006). "Library board hears complaints about books/Decision scheduled for Oct. 11 meeting". Marshall Democrat-News. Archived from the original on September 12, 2016 . Retrieved October 8, 2006.

Thompson said that he believes Blankets was a success because he was "reacting against all of the over-the-top, explosive action genre [in alternative comics, and] I also didn't want to do anything cynical and nihilistic, which is the standard for a lot of alternative comics." [1] Despite the praise heaped upon the book, it resulted in tension between Thompson and his parents for a couple of years after they read it. [2] However, I have struggled to understand the whole disruptive part of the biblical quotations and religious experience, I presume of some extreme Protestant wing.... ( For us Europeans, it is a bit strange and to understand certain realities of the Church, not having here so many Protestant confessions and all their variations of church) Craig can’t choose what he reads or sees on television. His father is a tyrant. He for a time willingly turns to his parents’ fundamentalist religion as a kind of escape from the world, with that promise of Heaven, and considers the encouragement from his pastor that he, a thoughtful, earnest boy, follow the ministerial calling. But it's a promise also filled with dark threats of Hell; at one point, led by a suggestion from his teachers that art is selfish, un-Christian, the darkly intense Craig burns all of his artwork.There were a lot of parts of the book that made me sad, or made me think. Craig goes through frantic periods where he literally burns everything he owns that he thinks is 'sinful' or a 'temptation.' Many born-again Christians do these purges. The results are almost never permanent. I was upset because some of the stuff he burns is very personal and valuable stuff that I knew he would regret burning later. As a child, I thought that life was the most horrible world anyone could ever live in, and that there HAD to be something better."

Space Dumplins is my most overlooked book. I don’t think anyone read that book. I don’t think my existing readers really knew it existed, or they weren’t interested in a full-color, kid-friendly book from me. It wasn’t the genre they wanted to see me work in. I maybe should have made it a trilogy. But instead, I have this book that seems to be invisible. It was a really weird double standard. It’s reflected in that scene [in Blankets] too, where it’s OK that I’m drawing war on one side of the paper, but the fact that I drew a naked lady on the other side…I was always getting in trouble for that kind of stuff as a kid. I feel a bit strange talking about this because obviously Blankets is a memoir and Craig is… uh, well real, but never mind.

This book is a masterpiece of form, symbol, and structure. Tokens bend and writhe and carry narrative significance throughout. Thompson's art here is fluid and is of that less-polished variety found also in Goodbye Chunky Rice and serves well to establish the variety of moods described in his several vignettes. I’ve always had more of a European take on this stuff in media. I think there should be more sexuality in media and less violence. I actually used to have a rule for myself that I never wanted to have guns in my comics until Ginseng Roots, in which I end up writing a bit about the CIA’s secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War, which required me to draw a lot of guns—but definitely not glorified or glamorized. From the perspective of one who grew up both in a faith-community that was friendlier to the arts and in a home whose high standards weren't as strictly enforced, I found his story particularly compelling and tragic. Surrounded by hypocrisy and a weak-kneed, moralistic fundamentalism, the source of his disillusionment is not difficult to see. Perhaps Blankets' greatest quality is the empathy it exerts from the reader. I pitied and cared for Craig. I felt the same for his brother, his parents. I mourned for Raina, Craig's love interest in the book. I grew despondent for her family. More than anything, I wanted to hug each of these characters and make it all right and sensible again. Harper, Rachel (February 8, 2007). "Library policy has first reading". Marshall Democrat-News. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016 . Retrieved March 5, 2007.