Blankets

I really liked reading Craig Thompson’s Blankets. The visuals are really cools, and I love how fluid the line work is. The brush pen adds a very strong element to the piece. One thing I found unique about Thompson’s work is how he will go to extremes in braking a character’s structure to convey emotions. This is especially true for his childhood panels.  I like how he would push his drawings, it has a very flat and graphic feel when he dose this. He also incorporates words in to the composition of the panel, which I feel is something more associated with superhero comics than pieces like this. I felt that the cubby hole part of the story was very powerful, and you can tell that it’s from the perspective of a child because of the composition of the panels, always visually placing the brother as a victim. Through out this story he addresses a lot of things that other people might not want to, and this helps to strengthen his voice and characters. There are many parts that may be difficult to read for some people, but it is important that they are included because without them the story would not carry the same weight. For instance, the babysitter segment. This part also shows the artists strength because the grunt of information and emotion is conveyed through the drawings rather than the text. All are drawn with an excellent hand to manipulate the reader’s emotions.  However, I feel that the most powerful part of the book to myself was where he burns his childhood drawings. This felt like the part where I really connected with the character. Even if it is not for religious reasons, I feel that all artist at one point or another look at their work and are unhappy, even disgusted. I myself have a very difficult time in likening what I create, which only becomes harder the older something is when I look at it. I see faults, futility, even when someone is saying the opposite about a piece. At times it almost feels like a charade because you don’t want to be rude, but as you shake and nod you know deep down that you don’t agree. Silenced by social customs. To have another artist open up about the destruction of their art work was almost freeing in a way to read, and I really appreciated him going there.