Blankets By Craig Thompson

As of right now, Blankets is the comic most like the comics I read in my free time. It was beautiful plain and simple. The lines describe the very emotion Craig goes through. Its laden with details and its line work is ever changing. The emotional range the story takes you on is as if you’re living his life along with him.

I think doing an autobiographical piece like this must have helped the author grow a lot. When looking back on his childhood and when he shared a bed with Phil, he admits his cruelty and his weakness. He confides in the reader how he feared what was happening to Phil and therefore didn’t act out. Many people don’t usually admit to such personal things. Also in regards to his younger brother, it seems as if Craig envies him especially when they were younger (like when Craig was getting bullied and such). Its also become obvious that Craig admires Raina’s strength in her ability to defend and stick up for he siblings in ways Craig would be too afraid to. I saw it as something that drew him to her. Her courage that he lacks; That he craves.

Yet in her family it seems as if her father needs the most help. The world he’s worked so hard to build is crumbling around him. The wife he loves dearly is leaving him, his oldest daughter doesn’t seems to care the slightest about the family, his son is now rejecting him, and Raina, the one who’s holding everything together is growing up and soon will be leaving. Although I sincerely have no idea how Craig can live with his blindly religious mother, I can’t help but feel that Raina’s father is the saddest character. He has basically no control over his situation.

But on to Craig’s mother. Possibly its because I can’t understand how someone can so blindly follow a religion that I find her infuriating. She lets her teenage son stay over at a girl’s house for a week straight merely because they’re a Christian family. What difference would it make their religion? I understand religion played a very strong role in their family. But then she gets very upset when she finds out they’re in love. Would someone honestly go spend a week with someone that they didn’t care for? I know its part of her character, but that just blew my mind.

I seriously stopped taking notes on the story aside from major points. I found myself so involved with the story that I just kept reading. It was that good. Though I must say, I laughed when they were mentioning art school and its nude models. It was something I could relate to. And if my extended family knew about it prior to me telling them, they’d have offered the same opinions as Craig’s religious friends.