I Have Issues Review: Blankets

Over the next few weeks the Giggaheim will feature common black and white independent graphic novels you can get from your local library in the I Have Issues column.

I had heard good things about BLANKETS around the web and on popular podcasts like Fanboy Radio, but had not found a copy locally until I hit my library a while back. The local library had 3 copies, and all of them had been on a heavy circulation/checkout rotation. I grabbed the lone copy, and headed home to take it in. Unlike some other black and white graphic novels, Craig Smith’s artwork doesn’t take a while to adjust to. What I mean is, his illustrations are clear, and his art style does not clutter the page with thick inking lines, or clutter the page which would force you to stare at the panels and layouts to make sense of them.

The story takes a while to develop, and admittedly, the books to a few days to read. Craig Smith seems to share a vast majority of himself as his story dives into his childhood and progresses to the crux; and awkward romance that helps develop our main character into a self-sustaining man. Although a long journey, the story is flushed out with great detail and character development as we follow his growth through emotional boundaries and strict Christian environment, into a free-thinking artist. The observations and memories shared through the book are poignant, and remind me of independent filmmakers of the 1990s. I used to call them “window Movies” since they seem to show a brief time period of a character with no clear resolution. BLANKETS differs by delivering a complete journey through adolescence.

Smith’s illustrations are clearly rendered with easy to follow layouts; creating a dreamy atmosphere of gossamer remembrance. While there weren’t any “stand out” scenes or moments to me, the entire work has a brilliant atmosphere of intimacy as if you got to share the innermost part of someone else’s life. BLANKETS is a book that I would recommend to a teenager who would want something different to read, and perhaps the journey found in those pages would help illuminate someone else’s path through life.