Blankets - Craig Thompson

Blankets is the autobiographical tale of Craig Thompson's life - though he was only 27 when he wrote it - chronicling his life through boyhood and his teenage years, as well as early adulthood. The story begins with him as a young kid in middle school, supposedly somewhere around twelve or thirteen years old. The style is simplified, yet still holds relatively realistic proportions, and overall isn't too exaggerated. But in panels trying to capture his emotions or a conflict, the characters tend to become much more exaggerated in their expressions and movements to the degree of abstraction in some areas in order to better exemplify how he felt about them in the moment. He sets up the basic plot and themes for the rest of the story by explaining in his own words, how he had to sleep in the same bed with his younger brother in the exposed attic space. Though the words are narrating from a first-person view, they are in past tense, giving the sense that he is looking back on this portion of his life and the audience is peering into his memories and thoughts as he re-lives it. It begins in the winter-time, so the brothers playfully fight over the sheets like rambunctious little boys would, calling each other names and showing their playful relationship. Everything is fun until Craig is pushed from the bed from his little brother, and he falls to the floor loudly - his dad immediately stomps up the stairs from the clamorous thump, shouting at them to be quiet - this is the first display of how strict and short-tempered his parents are. The father's face throughout the scene is construed as over-exaggeratedly heartless and monstrous, the features blackened out in angry scribbles. The obedient fear towards his father made him feel helpless as his father takes his younger brother and shoves him in the spidery secret compartment and locks him in as punishment, where he cries quietly throughout the night. This scenario haunts Craig for the rest of the comic, as it makes him feel like he's a terrible, inadequate big brother. The audience follows Craig through what is a "normal" day for him in middle school, which is a miserable day by any comparison - bullies attack him multiple times throughout the day, making him late to class, which in turn causes the teacher to mock him, and later announce that the poem he wrote got an F and is rubbish. Upon returning home after such a horrible day however, when his mom asks how his day was, he replies that it was fine, showing that his days are probably normally pretty crappy, or else he would've complained to her. Boys his age (and throughout the teen years) tend to not consult with their mothers anyways, so his response also serves to illustrate both how normal and yet alienated he feels from people. Through scenes such as his fantasies in the nature around his house, the audience gets the idea that he is a loner and a day-dreamer. It's these thoughts that bring him to religion, which appeals to him as soon as he learns about heaven and how everyone is accepted there. He learns that it is a perfect place where everyone is happy, and immediately wants to go there to escape reality. His parents are Christian, as most families in the town appear to be, and force him to go to religious camp every year. Even there he feels like a loner among his peers, further depressing him and making him feel like a lonely loser - who isn't accepted at Christian camp? The comic sifts through his life timeline, jumping to his teen years as he goes through the motions and ends up at the camp every year. Though his childhood is revisited often in brief, random scenarios that further explain an aspect of his personality, the main time-line now follows him through his late teen years. At this point he has grown accustomed to going to camp every year and knows how to avoid the jocks and mean kids - he immediately looks for the "out-crowd," locating them on the fringes of the crowd of kids. Though he only gets along with the three guys in the group on a surface level, he immediately connects to the girl in the group, whom he quickly learns is named Raina. They separate from the group and quickly become best friends, doing everything together while escaping the guards that frequently try to force them into "required" activities such as church with the rest of the kids. Their relationship develops, and it isn't long before they both have feelings for each other and are obviously more than friends. The rest of the story continues to follow them and their relationship as it develops. Craig becomes extremely preoccupied with her, as he doesn't seem to have much else in his life besides his day-dreams and religion, which both keep him going along with spending time with her. They have many good times together, sharing special things with each other that they had never told or shown anyone else. They continue to grow closer before, later on in the story, Raina starts doing things Craig wouldn't expect of her, alienating him from her. He thought that they were both loners and both one in the same, but after she starts going to parties and participating in other social activities that he doesn't understand, their relationship falls apart. The story spirals, following his depressive emotions through his angsty thoughts. He says goodbye to her, moves out of his parent's house, and tries to move on, though the comic becomes mostly filled with his daydreams. In the end, they remain apart, but Craig finds a sort of equilibrium in his life and is able to move on.