Blankets

Recommended!

Graphic Novel ReviewBlankets is a semi autobiographical nearly 600 page thick tome and yet I finished it in less than a day. Thats the thing about graphic novels... They finish all too fast even when you want it to go onMy expectations were sky high considering the rave reviews, the series of awards its won and recommendations. While the art work is seriously good, the story left me a bit underwhelmed. I am not sure why. Even though it had a lot of raw pain, truth, despair and hope and beauty. Craig's childhood in Wisconsin countryside, the bullies from his school, his relationship with his brother, the overwhelming influence of the bible camp, christ-loving community around him whose promise of heaven became his dream escape from the daily reality he endured all these are covered in a poignant artistically glowing way through his black and white drawings. His teenage romance and its bittersweet moments form the highpoint of his existence uptil then and it is what makes him grow up. The book ends with his moving away, finding himself, shaking off the shackles of religion and returning intermittently and reminiscing.Its a novel which will stay with you for a long time even if you dont identify with it. Because its a heartfelt personal memoir illustrated with spell binding art

It's a very enjoyable story, illustrated perfectly. And most importantly the story starts and end in the same 📕.. I really like books where a story is concluded

Probably one of the finest graphic novels in recent times. Both the story and the artworks are beautiful!! Craig Thompson is a genius!! Little disappointed about the physical condition of the book though.

better to skip this book

Feelings will overpour and hearts will melt... This is one of the best stories I have ever come across and the art of visual storytelling adopted is second to none.I have ordered Habibi after reading this and hope for a similar reaction.

Second book of Craig Thompson that I've read. Blankets is far superior to his Habibi. In fact I feel his best!Independently it's one of the very good graphic novels in it's own right - good illustrations, author's own experience with love, obsession, relationship equations & surfacing up to gasp for fresh air, after the related ups & downs.Realistic - too much so as this is drawn from life - lot of subtle relationship/mind lessons in there too.Recommended read.

While the book in itself is an absolute visual treat and will take any reader on an emotional rollercoaster rise, the product I received had a damaged cover.

Blankets by Craig Thompson is simply the best graphic novel memoir I've ever read. I've read thousands of comics and graphic novels over the last 35+ years, and every year something comes along that blows me away. This is an incredibly well told, honest story that has stayed with me in the couple of years since I read it. Admittedly, the first time I read it was a downloaded copy from the internet, but I enjoyed it so much I had to buy a physical copy for myself. And what a book it is! You could break your foot if you dropped it on yourself, a huge, weighty volume, absolutely packed with brilliant artwork and story. I would recommend this to anyone, even people who don't usually buy comics. It's one of the best.

'Blankets' is a massive work of passion. It would seem to be a rather honest account to a story of first love and it's a massively thick book which holds some beautiful and mesmerising illustration work throughout the entire story. It's a story that will raise eyebrows across any reader and essentially provokes interest with how detailed the entire work is. Yet I have to say it's well worth a look if you're broadminded and perhaps interested by the story which is directed towards a very romantic period of one man's life. I found it to be a fantastic and unusual story and 'Blankets' deserves an award for it's creation of immense patience. It's not always an easy read but combining rare honesty with beautiful artwork is a bit of a genius idea and provoked me in a manner I was totally surprised by.

This is honest and beautiful account of love in many different forms. I really enjoyed the directness and blunt dialogue, it was harrowing at times but also very effective. I read this really quickly and would definitely recommend it however I also felt uncomfortable at times because certain things are slightly outdated and that really shows. In my eyes a book that wasn't written within the past year doesn't get a free pass on the wording of certain things so I rate my books with how they hold up in the time that I actually read them. Times change and just because this is a good book doesn't mean it will always stand morally as it did when it was first published.

Blankets is the first Graphic Novel I have ever read. They've been hard to avoid these last few years. Seemingly every movie or TV series coming out of Hollywood is based on one or at the very least, will have a character who is a proudly confessed `Comic Geek', and not the Comic Geek of old, they've started getting the girls. The message is clear, comic books are cool.In the light of all this positive propaganda; and never one to miss a good bandwagon, I decided to submit and join the club. A few minutes of Amazon based research lead me to Blankets, the reviews were so good and the praise so high that I was quite excited when Postman arrived, less so when I thought he'd brought me the Littlewood's Catalogue by mistake, and then very pleased - from a value for money standpoint at the very least - to find all that size and weight were pure comic book.A few pages in and I was aware that this was something quite special, and quite unlike anything I'd ever read before. Initial disappointment at the lack of colour vanished as the quality of the drawing and their sheer naked expressiveness sucked me in. This is a coming off age tale and it's remarkable how much of the author seems to be on the page. It's certainly brave and it feels like a privilege to be let into his quiet and secretive world. Blankets is largely autobiographical and deals with the authors childhood in a strongly religious rural community. We watch as he struggles to reconcile his faith with the conflicting feelings which arrive with adolescence and young adulthood. We watch as he meets his first love and how this complicates his view of the world and we see how the intense desires of youth can mellow and burn themselves out. It's all done with such modesty and restraint, such compassion and subtlety that I really fell for it. I found myself wanting to slow down and luxuriate over the pages, soaking up all the detail before moving on to the next.I've shoved Blankets under a fair few peoples noses; anyone who'd listen really. The result has been the same. `So it's like a Comic book. But it's about a Christian boy struggling with his faith and meeting his first love? Huh... *pause to look over the pages some more*... Can I borrow it? Blankets was my first Graphic Novel; it will not be the last, but it may well be the best.

I was taken aback by how candid the book was at times. It was an interesting look into the author's life. I thought it was very well told, there are moments of happiness and sadness, but as a lot of reviews have already stated, it just feels very honest. Particularly when the author reflects on how he viewed himself and how he changed as he grew.I whole heartedly recommend it, it's an incredibly well told coming-of-age story.