‘Blankets’ and wintry reminiscences

First love rarely ends pleasantly. It begins as an ideal of finally finding someone who understands you, only for it to slowly end as the dream becomes reality. It can be hard to look back on positively, but in the graphic novel “Blankets,” author/artist Craig Thompson weaves a tale of first love and religious awakening into an incredibly positive and poetic work of art.

“Blankets” is an illustrated memoir about Thompson’s life growing up, struggles with finding his religious identity, family issues with his brother and parents and his first love. The tale is sweeping and not a single one of the three stories ever seems like it doesn’t get enough space, with every piece connected to a central tale about
 growing up.

One of the smallest and most overlooked themes is that of childhood memory.

Thompson touches on how memories of childhood become almost as imaginary as the stories made up on the playground. It seems to only be curable by finding someone else who was there to confirm it really did happen. It’s an insecurity that many people might not even realize they suffer from.

This small theme translates into the central story of the comic: Craig’s long-distance love affair with a girl he meets named Raina.

Aside from having one of the coolest and most gorgeous-sounding names ever, Raina inspires Craig to continue with his artwork and realize there is a world outside of the cold alienation he suffers at his high school.

As the relationship progresses and Craig finally visits Raina, the frailty of long-distance relationships emerges. It’s an escape from your everyday life, knowing that somewhere out there someone feels the same way you do. At the same time, though, that person has their own life that you can’t even imagine.

When Craig finally visits Raina, it’s like a realization of a dream, but then when he leaves the realization of her having her own life to deal with begins to wake him up.

The handling of these themes is aided incredibly by Thompson’s incredible style that goes from looking extremely cartoon-like and abstract to a winter wonderland of words floating by on gusts of winds. He also plays with common comic book styles like a section of panels slowly being painted over. Every page of the 600 looks like it took an immense amount of thought.

It’s also one of the only books or comics I’ve ever seen that has a soundtrack accompaniment. The soundtrack, recorded by the band Tracker, has an atmospheric wintery sound to it, with only one track containing vocals. While each track has a designated chapter to read along with it, any track works as the snowy ambience fits all of the comic’s chapters.

Comics have the power to emotionally affect people, and “Blankets” ranks highly as one of the best novels of any sort.