Blankets

Blankets is a beautifully real tale of a boy whose ultraconservative and depressingly average childhood leads him to draw pictures as a vessel for his huge imagination. This is the story of Craig Thompson, the author, and his first experience falling in love. This is the second time I have read blankets and it is still as fantastically raw as the first time. Thompson's style of illustration is simple which corresponds with the sentiment of the story, but it is also sketchy and whimsical. The illustrations are almost awkward, in a sense, like the characters themselves--naive and awkward. It is hard for me to comment on the story as it is based on his life, what is impressive is the amount of detail that he must remember. Some of the tender moments of childhood and horrid moments of puberty that most people likely push to the depths of their memories never to be retrieved. He finds those moments and uses them to create a story that is easy to relate to and is engaging in a way that likely everyone can identify with.
Thompson is creative in his use of space and text. Some pages are very conventional while others, intended moments, stand out by breaking with tradition. Page 321 and page 377 are particular examples of this. Page 464-467 too, without the panel borders make the events blend into one another in the way Craig likely felt the days blending into each other. Page 529 is stark and plain in a perfect way, and of course pages 540 to 543 are painfully expressive with the use of white space.
Blankets is fantastic, I can't wait till the third time I get to read it.