[Blankets, by Craig Thompson; chapter 2-5]

Blankets seems to just get more beautiful the more I read it. I want the time to sit and read it all in one go, but I'm glad in a sense that I don't have that time. I'm glad it's being drawn out like this, chapter to chapters. If I read it all at once, I'd be afraid of missing something, of not spending enough time with each picture, each set of words.

Raina, though, yes, not complicated, brings a sort of hope for me to the story. All of the religious prattle gets obnoxious. I have a distinct distaste for these kinds of Christan camps, as well as the adults that run the churches and know everything. I'm not religious and very not Christian, and very possibly an atheist, so I'm consistently annoyed at the tie to God and the Bible throughout the story. I see Craig turning away from drawing as a horrible thing. He squelches his creativity for awhile to please God, or something, and I find it sickening. If there is a God, wouldn't He praise creativity in any form? Our imaginations are the only things that truly belong to us anymore. Doesn't that, shouldn't that, mean something?

The language of Blankets is surprising. I guess I expect comics and graphic novels to be on a level below literature, like penny romance novels or something. It's a ridiculous concept, but really, you know what I'm talking about. But then, Thompson will go and write something like--

And the fallen snow welcomes the falling snow with a whispered "HUSH."

--and I'm kind of blown away. The language is maybe a little too elaborate at times, but it has a way of drawing me in, as if the actual drawings don't do that enough already.

I'm having trouble being literary-critical behind my coffee cup this time. It's easier to let the words fall out of me then to dissect the scenes today. All I can say is that this story reminds me continuously of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, only more hopeful.

(Oh, and I'm sorry about the lack of images this time. I don't have a scanner, and I didn't have time to get myself to lab one this time.)