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Blankets

by Craig Thompson · 2003

"Blankets" is an autobiographical graphic novel by Craig Thompson that traces his coming of age in rural Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Raised in a strict Evangelical Christian household, the young Craig endures a… more

First published 2003 · 592 pages · English

21 quotes ★ 4.06 (127,283) Fiction

Quotes from the Book

How satisfying it is to leave a mark on a blank surface. To make a map of my movement - no matter how temporary.
309
Maybe I'm sad about wanting you. I'm not too comfortable with wanting someone.
121
Even a mistake is better than nothing.
112
Sometimes, upon waking, the residual dream can be more appealing that reality, and one is reluctant to give it up. For a while, you feel like a ghost -- Not fully materialized, and unable to manipulate your surroundings. Or else, it is the dream that haunts you. You wait with the promise of the next dream.
87
Shame is always easier to handle if you have someone to share it with.
84
On my first visit to the public library, I was like a kid at a candy store where all the candy was free. I gorged myself until my tummy ached.
65
I wanted a heaven. And I grew up striving for that world-- an eternal world- that would wash away my temporary misery.
60
Pressed against her I can hear eternity -- hollow, lonely spaces and currents that churn ceaselessly, and the fallen snow welcomes the falling snow with a whispered "Hush".
42
Which is scarier-- lust or temptation?
41
For what matters if I gain the whole world, but lose my soul?
34
At night, lying on your back and staring at the falling snow, it's easy to imagine oneself soaring through the stars.
31
You know, sometimes you look at me with longing... ... even though I'm here with you.
24
And that's my comfort -- that someone else was there and experienced the same thing. How else could I know it was REAL and not merely a dream?
21
Her lips tarried at mine. Baiting each other with the warmth of our breath, barely grazing, detouring, then connecting.
21
I was grateful for cereal --- the only food that my tummy, riddled by pangs of infatuation, could handle.
18
We experience a discomfort that may be foreign to others, but that pain opens up a world of beauty. Wouldn't you think?
16
Except heaven is a hope , and eden is a memory .
15
I still believe in God; the teachings of Jesus even, but the rest of Christianity... its Bible, its churches, its dogma-- only sets up boundaries between people and cultures. It denies the beauty of being HUMAN, and it ignores all these GAPS that need to be filled in by the individual.
13
Underwater, we're drowning victims, struggling over and under each others' bodies. But above, we bob with the tide,undercurrents pulling us just far enough apart ,so that we're drifting parallel but not together.
12
And slowly the snow began to melt. First, doing a number on children's constructions; Then retreating to the foundations of barns and other buildings. Mangy grass poked through the receding snow. Patches of white were swallowed up in the till of the fields. New shapes emerged. Areas of the forest became INACCESSIBLE now that the snow no longer weighed down the weeds and brier. ...Nothing fits together anymore.
8
When you are lost or looking for someone suspected lost, the CROWDS of people form a threatening undertow undermining your every effort.
1

Did you know?

  • The book is one of the longest single-volume graphic novels of its time, running roughly 592 pages.
  • Time magazine ranked Blankets the best comic of 2003.
  • It won multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards in 2004, including Best Graphic Album.
  • The story is set in rural Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula during Thompson's youth in the 1980s and 1990s.
  • The Portland band Tracker recorded a soundtrack inspired by the book.
  • Its central romance grows out of a meeting at a Christian winter church camp.

About Craig Thompson

Craig Thompson is an American cartoonist born in 1975, known for autobiographical and literary graphic novels. He grew up in a rural Evangelical Christian family in Wisconsin, an upbringing that informs much of his work, and is also the author of the graphic novels Good-bye, Chunky Rice and Habibi.

More about the author →

About the book

"Blankets" is an autobiographical graphic novel by Craig Thompson that traces his coming of age in rural Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Raised in a strict Evangelical Christian household, the young Craig endures a lonely, often difficult childhood with his younger brother Phil before meeting Raina, a girl he falls for at a church winter camp. The book follows the tender, fragile arc of that first love alongside his gradual questioning of the faith he was raised in.

At its heart the book explores first love, faith and doubt, the ache of adolescence, and the tension between bodily desire and religious shame. Thompson's expansive black-and-white artwork lingers on snow, blankets, and quiet domestic spaces, using imagery to convey emotion as much as the sparse text does. Sibling bonds, memory, and the search for personal identity outside an inherited worldview run throughout.

Published by Top Shelf Productions in 2003, "Blankets" was a landmark in the literary acceptance of long-form comics and became one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of its era. It swept the major comics awards in 2004, winning multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards, and Time magazine named it the best comic of 2003. It is widely credited with helping bring the autobiographical graphic memoir to a mainstream literary readership.

Key characters

  • CraigThe autobiographical protagonist, an introspective young artist raised in a strict religious home
  • RainaThe girl Craig falls in love with at church camp, his first romance
  • PhilCraig's younger brother and childhood companion
  • Ben and LauraRaina's adopted younger siblings with disabilities, whom she cares for

Book details

First published
2003
Length
592 pages
Reading time
3 hours
Genre
Fiction
Goodreads rating
4.06 (127k ratings)

Critical reception

  • Won the 2004 Eisner Awards for Best Graphic Album and Best Writer/Artist.
  • Won multiple 2004 Harvey Awards, including Best Graphic Album of Original Work.
  • Time magazine named it the best comic of 2003 and later ranked it among the best comics of the decade.

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