Blankets by Craig Thompson

I’ve never heard anything about the book Blankets, by Craig Thompson, before I took this class. What a shame. No other graphic novel, or just plain novel for that matter, has ever inspired me to want to do something similar as much as this one has. After reading this book, I’m seriously considering making a graphic novel about my life. Of course in the far future, when I have time. Craig Thompson used all the elements to make this story a masterpiece. The drawing style, the intertwining of different stories, and the unabashed approach to revealing his inner most secrets to the world. This man is brave. This book dealt with so many problems that people go through everyday. The book focuses mainly on his first love: Raina. Unlike so many love stories this book never feels cliché or generic. This is because Thompson was completely honest about everything he ever did, thought, or witnessed. He mentions the great moments and the moments that made him ashamed of himself. He never hides anything. His wistful, delicate lines illustrate the emotions he once felt towards Raina. He uses tangible objects as metaphors of his past; blankets being the most important. He uses images of snow a lot. Perhaps the snow represents bliss. Snow is pure, clean, and new. Before it’s touched it blankets the ground perfectly and flawlessly. Thompson refers to a fresh batch of snow as a blank piece of paper waiting to be marked upon. Thompson’s love for Raina had the same pure, flawless feel to it. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit this, but when I first picked up Blankets my initial response was “Oh God!” The sheer width of this book was pretty intimidating. But it took me all but three pages to realize that reading this book wouldn’t feel long at all. I was in the back of the library reading the thing for over an hour and didn’t even realize I had been there that long. I would have read the whole thing in one sitting had it not been for some lady turning the lights out on me and telling me the library was closed. Who knew the library closed so early on Fridays? Seriously though, I think I’m going to buy this book and share it with friends and family. It’s just so amazingly beautiful.

Doot Doot Garden by Craig Thompson

Doot Doot Garden by Craig Thompson was a pretty weird read for me. It amazes me that he made this entire comic in only 24 hours. The drawings don’t look like they were drawn that quickly. Thompson used line width to illustrate different moods and emotions throughout the comic. Thompson cut the book up into four different stories. The first story, Salty Yellow Rain, is about a character diving into a blank piece of paper and entering a disturbing world filled with human excrement. In this mini story Thompson used a combination of thin, controlled lines and a deluge of thick, slashing lines during more dramatic moments. The panels were made in a very organic way. The lines that separate the panels are wavy and resemble plant vines. Another short story in the book has an entirely different feel; both because of the story and the way it was drawn. Chunky Rice the Turtle Moves Away was a cute little story, about, well, a turtle moving away. He gets on a boat and sits next to an annoying redneck that talks to him for the rest of the story. The drawing style and panels are much different in this story. Most of the panels are small squares and rectangles that line up perfectly and are separated by thick, black lines. The story has a calmer and more solemn feel to it, so Thompson probably didn’t feel the need to use crazy lines and weird shaped panels. Overall, Thompson’s story telling is very random. He writes these funny little stories that end very unpredictably. To me, it seems like he ends all his stories at what should be the middle of the story. The last story in the graphic narrative is An Insect Invention. The story is about a boy who’s shown an invention by his friend. His friend runs out of candle money so he invents a way to take the juice from fireflies and use it to make a super powerful light. The story randomly ends with the firefly light burning out and the little boy having to walk home in the dark. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that the ends of Thompson’s stories are kind of a let down, but in a way it makes them some what funny.

Plastic Man!

Today I had the pleasure of reading some of Jack Cole’s Plastic Man. At least I think it was pleasurable. It was funny and colorful, so yeah, I guess I could say it was pleasurable. Anyways, I realized that when I was reading some of these comics my eyes were traveling very quickly and turning the pages every minute or so. Something about the story and the way the dialogue was drawn out made me want to read very quickly. Probably because the characters in Plastic Man were very fast paced. They were here, and then they were in the ocean, and then Plastic Man was stretching across a few frames on to an entirely different street of his made up city.

The colors in this comic were very bright and primarily red, blue, green, and yellow. The colors were flat and weren’t used to bring extra dimensions to the buildings and landscapes that gave the overall feeling of the comic book a very “acid-trippy” feel to it. The stories are pretty cheesy and ridiculous but I think this is what made the comics so funny. The first one was about Sphinx, a rotten crook that has a plan to use the cute Bright Eyes as a way to con people of their money. Sphinx is also buying orphaned children to sell to parents hoping to adopt. When his plan begins to fail he puts all the children in a boat that sinks and Bright Eyes ties himself to a string with the other end attached to the boat. He swims to shore and is found washed up on the beach by Plastic Man and his sidekick Woozy Winks. When they find Bright Eyes Plastic Man saves the sunken ship with the children and comes back to tell Woozy that everything’s all right. I thought it was funny how they never actually show Plastic Man save the children; he just comes back in a flash and claims that he did. This is what I thought was so funny about this comic. Everything that seemed weird and impossible was quickly explained by one of the characters. It was like “Dues ex machina” or “God in the machine”, where situations were easily handled or explained through an impossible or “God-like” miracle. I read a little about the life of Jack Cole and thought it was interesting that he went on to draw for Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine. I quite liked the cartoony nudes he painted with watercolors that he made as considerations for the magazine.

Peanuts

Peanuts is such a classic. How can anyone not love these comics? A bunch of funny looking kids getting into all their shenanigans. It’s no wonder I like Peanuts. This strip is a lot like Calvin and Hobbes. Or I should say Calvin and Hobbes is a lot like Peanuts. Calvin and Hobbes author, Bill Watterson, was very much inspired by the Peanuts adventures and it’s not hard to see why. This is another story about children with big imaginations. Maybe they’re not as crazy as Calvin, but they sure do some funny stuff. Charlie Brown, probably the most recognizable Peanuts character, is always slacking on homework and falling for Sally’s tricks. In one strip, Charlie Brown is watching the clock in class and thinking to himself, “Come on bell! Ring, ring, ring! Please don’t call on me!” The bell rings and he’s able to wait another day before he has to give his book report. Linus says to Charlie, “Well, now you can do your report, “ and Charlie says, “No, I’m going outside to play.” It’s simple, yet so true of adolescent behavior that I’m sure all of us can relate to it. Peanuts is a very children friendly comic, yet still contains plenty of mature humor for the older generations to enjoy. For example, the psychiatrist stands Sally sets up. Or the kid that’s constantly playing Beethoven. Snoopy is a fun character as well. He’s always lying on top of his doghouse on his back and for some reason I always think, “Doesn’t that hurt his back?” Anyways, when I was reading the Peanuts collection in the library I noticed how, unlike Hobbes, Snoopy talks in thought bubbles. It seems at times that Charlie Brown can talk to Snoopy, but I’m confused as to if he really is talking to him or just pretending he is. I usually like comics that are short and concise. Peanuts is one those comics. One strip doesn’t last more than a few frames but still packs a powerful punch of humor in one little comic. They’re never too long, or too wordy, and are overall just easy and enjoyable to read.

Calvin and Hobbes

If I’d have to choose, I think I’d say that Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite comic strip. I have a huge compilation book of Calvin and Hobbes at home and I’m thinking of digging it out next time I visit. The character of Calvin is just so cute to me. He’s always thinking up little adventures and turning himself into epic super heroes. I really love stories about children with big imaginations and Calvin certainly has that imaginative spark. As a kid, my favorite cartoon was The Rugrats and Calvin and Hobbes reminds of the crazy, made up adventures Tommy and Chucky would venture on. The Rugrats were of course made for tv, so the characters had more room for larger and more detailed adventures, but with tiny newspaper space and usually no color, Calvin and Hobbes get to go on adventures just as funny as the babies in The Rugrats. Calvin is appealing to me for many reasons, yet one really stands out. His vocabulary is very large for such a little character. In one strip Calvin wants to play war with Hobbes and tells Hobbes he’ll be the “the fearless American defender of liberty and democracy” and Hobbes can be the “loathsome, Godless, communist oppressor.” To imagine a six year-old saying “Godless, communist oppressor” is just hilarious to me. We all know that six year-olds have no idea what communists are yet I totally go with it when I read this little boy saying such things. I like how annoying Calvin is to all of the other characters. He’s a total nuisance to everyone around him and he really has no idea. The illustrations are just really cute too. I love the way the characters look. They’re drawn with simple, yet at the same time, bold, black lines. I love Calvin’s giant head full of spiky, blonde hair and Hobbes’ lanky, plush body. The whole relationship between Calvin and Hobbes is interesting. They annoy each other, yet they’re best friends and always have each other’s backs. The thought of this silly little boy with an imaginary friend is very charming. It’s weird how it just doesn’t seem right when they show Hobbes as what he really is: an inanimate, stuffed, toy tiger. Yeah, I really think I’m going to search for my Calvin and Hobbes.

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland

Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo was a very different read. It was kind of weird and not as enjoyable as I thought it would be. With a name like Little Nemo I thought it would be a cuter comic but discovered it was far from what I imagined. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t horrible, and some things about it I would consider cute. The character Little Nemo was very cute when in his bed being threatened by his parents to wake up. Honestly those tiny little pieces at the bottom right corner of every other page were my favorite parts. I think this is because there was just too much going on in the gigantic dream sequences. Every time Nemo fell asleep and delved back into his dream state, the character Flip was messing something up. The dream Nemo and his friend, the Princess, just stood there and complained about everything Flip did while everything turned to chaos. It looks to me that this comic book is probably a very early example of the genre and I understand why the story may seem repetitive and juvenile. It’s very simplistic with its structuring yet highly detailed with the events that unfold. This is most likely because these types of comic books where most likely for children only. This comic doesn’t seem like something a young adult would be interested in. I appreciate things from the past that were some what firsts of their time, but now that we have so many new and amazing options, Little Nemo is just that: a thing of the past. I do applaud the author though, and recommend anyone to read this comic if they’re interested in comic history. People should always know about the earlier works of the genre they’re interested in pursuing. Getting back to the story, I found it a little difficult to read the words in the bubbles. They seemed smashed in there and the dialect of the characters slowed me down a bit. The art was very colorful and the drawings were okay. I personally like comics very clean and refined, more like The Arrival’s. I thought it was a bit racist with the barbarian child being a black kid with clown makeup on with a cannibalistic appetite. When he did something wrong he was referred to with demeaning names and was viewed as stupid and unable to learn. Well, that’s the early 19^th century for ya’. Overall I give in a C.

The Arrival

Wow! The Arrival was probably the most stunningly beautiful comic I’ve ever read so far. The illustrations were amazing and the lack of words left me with a world of possible interpretations to explore. The story is obviously about an immigrant man coming to a strange new world. At first I expected to see him arrive in America on Ellis Island or something, but soon discovered this was an entirely different world. I think the author wants this strange, alien world to represent what it feels like when a foreigner enters a new country. If the pictures displayed a man coming to New York we would understand the story and how the character feels out of place, but by creating a world unknown to all humans, we readers feel out of place right along with the man. I loved the page near the beginning with nothing but little square pictures of clouds. They weren’t just little drawings of clouds. Each and every one evoked a new feeling and kept me astounded by their simple, yet highly detailed forms. I think the author put in that many drawings of clouds to lengthen the time it would take until we turned the page, giving the real feeling that a lot of time has passed. Journeys over seas are never quick and a changing of the clouds can represent days and weeks of time. Of course I loved all the little details and creatures created for the new world. The birds that flew over the ship reminded my of the little origami bird the man made for his daughter. The animal that follows the man around is very cute and added even more wonder to the story. The amount of detail in creating the alien world is amazing. The city, the foods, the flying ships, and the teepee looking buildings are just a few to point out. I loved how after a new character was introduced their stories were folded out across the pages. The old man missing a leg was in a war. It seemed to me like wherever the main character was from there might have been the looming of a war around the corner. At least that’s how I interpreted the giant snake shadow thing at the beginning. The end of this book was very pleasing and heartwarming to see the man’s family joining him in the new world. The very end had to be my favorite though, with the little girl helping out a newcomer.