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Craig Thompson
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Blankets Paperback – October 5, 2017

by Craig Thompson (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 1,436 ratings
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First UK publication for this modern classic

'It's beautifully written and drawn, it's very poetic and very romantic. I highly recommend it.' ELENA FAVILLI

'Moving, tender, beautifully drawn, painfully honest and probably the most important graphic novel since Jimmy Corrigan.' NEIL GAIMAN

'Blankets is a classic in every genre it touches.' STEPHEN CHBOSKY, author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower

'One of the greatest love stories ever written and surely the best ever drawn.' JOSS WHEDON

Wrapped in the snowfall of a blustery Midwestern winter, Blankets is the tale of two brothers growing up in rural isolation, and of the budding romance between two young lovers. A tale of security and discovery, of playfulness and tragedy, of a fall from grace and the origins of faith, Blankets is a profound and utterly beautiful work.

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Previous page
  1. Part of Series
    Blankets
  2. Print length
    592 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Faber & Faber
  5. Publication date
    October 5, 2017
  6. Dimensions
    7.09 x 1.77 x 9.06 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0571336027
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0571336029
  9. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Faber & Faber; Main edition (October 5, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 592 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0571336027
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0571336029
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.04 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.09 x 1.77 x 9.06 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 1,436 ratings

About the author

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Craig Thompson

Craig Thompson

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CRAIG THOMPSON was born in Michigan in 1975. He is the writer and artist of the critically acclaimed graphic novels Blankets, Habibi, Space Dumplins, Good-bye, Chunky Rice, and Carnet de Voyage. He was awarded three Eisner awards, three Harvey awards, two Ignatz awards, and a Grammy nomination for album cover artwork on Menomena’s Friend and Foe. He lives in Los Angeles with partner Sierra Hahn and cat Momo.

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
1,436 global ratings
A beautiful story of family and first love
4 Stars
A beautiful story of family and first love
"𝘈𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘏𝘈𝘋 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳."Author/illustrator Craig Thompson takes us on an autobiographical journey through some of the defining coming-of-age moments in his child and teenage years. The main story line of the book focuses on Craig meeting a girl at church camp around his senior year of high school, falling madly in love, and going to stay two weeks with her family. But there are also snippets of a story line from when he and his brother were much younger.This was such a lovely, tender, and heartbreaking story to read. Thompson does an incredible job of illustrating these compelling and often introspective moments of his childhood, and I could really feel the emotion coming off of the page. So realistic and relatable, I feel like I know these characters (and occasionally were some of these characters growing up). I love the moments when Craig plays with the medium, allowing moments of fantasy (in imagination and illustration) to reinforce the thoughts/feelings of the characters.The only thing I didn’t like was the lack of full closure at the end. I get that’s how life is, and this just a snippet in his own, but there are things I still would have liked to known (including a very dark moment that was never explained).
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Top reviews from the United States

Harry
5.0 out of 5 stars Pristine Copy
Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2024
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Arrived as expected; wasn't marked or damaged in any way.
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Leslie
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect, touching, beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2010
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I don't know how to describe the way I feel about Blankets other than, when I closed its covers, it made me cry. Not because the ending was sad, because it wasn't, it was beautiful and hopeful, but because I couldn't believe what I had just experienced and I couldn't believe that it was over. For the first 200 pages of Blankets, I read slowly, immersing myself in every single drawing, every line, every word. For the last 350 pages I was consumed by the story. I have no recollection of anything happening outside of its pages. I was wholly a part of Craig's world and nothing could have drawn me out of it. Did hours pass? Possibly. I honestly couldn't tell you. All I can tell you is that I have never been moved by graphic novel like this and there are only a few traditional novels that have made me feel the same way.

Craig Thompson says that Blankets came from the urge to describe what it is like to sleep in the same bed as someone for the first time. There is no sentence that sums up Blankets better than that, but there is so much more depth to it than that. Craig, the son of very religious parents, weaves two stories that have a blanket at their center: sharing a bed with his younger brother when they were children and falling in love for the first time with Raina, a girl he met at a Christian camp.. This is a book about passions (religious, sexual, familial, romantic) and how they are at once complementary and contradictory. They push and pull against one another as much as they make each other possible. When one passion cannot be reconciled with another, how we deal with the force of that disappointment eventually defines who we are.

Blankets made me really think about my own religious journey. Religion is a huge part of this graphic novel and I know that that can turn some people away. At the center of the story is Craig's questioning of his faith, that until his young adulthood was a blind faith. It's honest, but it's still reverent. At the center of this novel is not losing one's faith, but being able to ask questions about it. About taking a personal journey to discover your relationship with faith, no matter what that faith or the result of that discovery may be. I know that I appreciate this part of the novel because the way Craig feels about things really mirrors my own life, but I don't think it should be a deterrent for anyone reading this novel. It is about so much more than just religion; it's one coming of age story in which everyone can find pieces of themselves.

Often after finishing a novel I say, "Wow, that book made me want to go back to the front page and read it again." Well, for the first time, I actually did it. I read Blankets twice in one night and found that there were so many small things and connections that I missed after my first reading. For example, Raina and Craig begin their relationship as pen pals and at one point we see Craig draw a picture for Raina. Later, when he finally visits her house, that picture is on Raina's wall. It's details like that that truly make a graphic novel a masterpiece. But that is not the only thing that makes Blankets perfect. It's Thompson's excellent use of negative space, the recurring themes and images, like blankets and snow (blankets of snow!!), typography and so much more.

Blankets will make you ache. It will make you pine for the particular way first love consumes you. It will bring you back to that particular loneliness that is high school, in all that you are forever surrounded by people. It will remind you of the fits of fanaticism that being a child and a teenager allow. Even if your life is completely different from Craig's, I challenge you not to find snippets of your own family here in both Craig and Raina's. I challenge you to read Blankets and not be moved. Please, please read this autobiographical comic: it doesn't get any better than this.
38 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Will Completely Wash Over You
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2023
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Quality is here! From the book bindings, paper, and weight it is a solid book. The illustrations are immersive and make you feel like you are in the story.

The story is a poignant coming of age story. Growing up going to church camp there was a connection there for me personally. In some ways I felt like I was reading my story and others I was having a drink with Craig and he was sharing his story to me like a friend. 100% honesty is placed on these pages.

I will say that there are some strong mature themes and illustrations that can be triggering. However, life itself isn’t censored and this graphic novel deals with real life and can be relative to so many people.

I read it all within 24 hours and spent a good 3 hours just sitting there and processing what happened once finished. I wanted to read it again for the first time. It wrecked me in the best way.
4 people found this helpful
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Joseph Dewey
5.0 out of 5 stars The best graphic novel I've ever read...
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2005
Verified Purchase
...and I've read quite a few.

But first, let me tell you about a theory of mine.

It is that the more complex the medium, the more powerful a message is possible.

So, books, verbal, and art are all simple media, in that they are one concentrated, direct medium. All of these media have matured, in that there are the best books, the best speeches, and the best art already available.

Music, graphic novels, and movies would be the next level of complexity in that they combine two forms of media. Music is the only one of these media that has fully matured, in that there is lots of music out there that is better than the best in either vocals or poetry. There have been a few movies that have transcended the separate media of photographs and literature, but really not very many. Movies is still a relatively new media, and I think that in about 20 years you will see lots of movies that are better than either of the components of photographs or literature.

Which brings me to this book--this book is a land breaking book in that it finally pushed graphic novels past the point that either books or art can achieve on their own. Craig Thompson has finally brought the medium of graphic novels "into its own."

And, then the Internet and "TV of the future" would be ultra-complex media. My guess is that it's about 100 years from now before anyone makes a website that's better than a good book.

This story made me cry. Every chapter made me cry. I read it a chapter at a time, and savored it. I recommend that, because there is so much in this book.

If you're looking to be surprised by a book, read another one. I could tell the ending from the first chapter or two, but it didn't matter. The strength of this book is in the emotions it evokes.

This book did something really cool toward the middle--it portrayed perfection. Everything was perfect for just about 10 pages. I don't know how Craig Thompson did it, but he created something in this book that is larger than life, that is tangible, and that will probably stick with me forever.

Maybe in a few years after I've read this book five more times, I'll figure out the magic of it and post another review and explain it all. But, for now all I can say is that I'm awed by how perfect this book is.

Also, this book isn't a teenage love story. It's a story about childhood memories. It has the phantasmagoric effect of remembering. I loved it.
11 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Manuel Sánchez Aponte
5.0 out of 5 stars La mejor novela de Craig Thompson.
Reviewed in Spain on January 30, 2024
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Imprescindible.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars En väldigt fin bok
Reviewed in Sweden on December 12, 2023
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En väldigt fin bok. Jättefint tecknad och en bra berättelse. Ett bra köp.
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swapnil dutta
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in India on October 5, 2023
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It is vividly engrossing. Superb artworks. It transformed the way I looked into a graphic novel.
4 people found this helpful
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ViolaB
5.0 out of 5 stars stupendo
Reviewed in Italy on April 15, 2023
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Questo libro è semplicemente stupendo. E' arrivato presto e in ottime condizioni.
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Niko MR
5.0 out of 5 stars Oh mein Gott ist das gut - unglaublich guter Comic!
Reviewed in Germany on March 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
Ich war selten so begeistert von Story und Zeichenstil eines Comics, man kann ihn gar nicht mehr aus der Hand legen, so fesselnd ist die Geschichte. Kann ich nur empfehlen, auch ein super Geschenk.
Es ist so liebevoll gezeichnet und so toll, dass ich mehrfach beim Lesen Gänsehaut hatte, so sehr hat mich dieses Buch berührt. Wenn man nur einen Comic haben will, muss man einfach dieses Buch haben.
3 people found this helpful
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