Blankets: A Review

I must admit, I was one of those skeptical people. I saw comics as a medium by which artist could only express the typical good guy bad guy plot. And don’t get me wrong, some are extremely creative and original. But, being the seeker of romance, I wanted a comic that told a love story. Maybe not a love story, but something more in the lines of a novel.

It was then that I came face to face with what I was yearning to find: a graphic novel. Now, a graphic novel is not short and does not have multiple issues and volumes like a comic series does. However, it has a nuance of the rhetoric usually found in text-based novels. My favourite to this day is Blankets by Craig Thompson.

Blankets is a memoir that takes the reader through the wonderment and hardships of first-love stories. It reminds you of what falling in love feels like, and I believe that is the key to its success. It brings forth all these emotions that you might or might not have experienced yet. Through the use of motifs and symbolisms such as snow, quilts, and of course blankets, Thompson gives the reader a physical taste of what it feels like to be in his shoes. As you read the graphic novel and immerse yourself in the beautifully drawn graphics, you can actually feel yourself get cold, or be safe in the warmth of a blanket.

The reason why this graphic novel is of importance to the advancement of comics and graphic novels as a whole is that Blankets was able to translate feelings and thoughts of poetry into a few words and a very detailed image. This transition of linguistics into the pictorial realm is most notable in the work of Thompson.

Now that summer is approaching, check the book out.
We all love a bit of romance and mushy feelings every now and then.