Blankets by Craig Thompson

Blankets really struck a chord with me and I was crying a lot while reading it. I love when a comic can do that. I think what appealed to me the most about it is that it is a work about the beauty of life but it is unafraid to be honest about the disgusting, humiliating, and harmful parts of life as well. I have noticed that I like a lot of stories with that theme. Movies like Eternal Sunshine, American Beauty, and Swiss Army Man are really fascinating to me because of this.

When I thought about comic books that have that kind of tone, I thought about Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Marbles by Ellen Forney. These books also deal with sexuality and are autobiographical, like Blankets. It's amazing to me that graphic novelists can be so fearlessly honest about their own lives. Even more so than novelists, because they can draw themselves in the situations they experienced, even if it's a humiliating or traumatic experience like masturbating for the first time or being sexually assaulted by a babysitter. I love that Craig Thompson can not only capture the action of what is happening in his life, but can use gesture and linework to capture the emotion as well. What makes autobiographical graphic novels so impactful to me is that since they are able to get so explicit down to the finest detail, you can breathe a sigh of relief that you're not the only one to experience that kind of shame or humiliation. 

I am curious about what it is like for a comic artist to publish something so intimately personal for people to read for decades to come. I wondered if Craig Thompson's parents and brother have read the comic, for example. I'd like to read interviews with Craig Thompson to learn more.