Blankets by Craig Thompson

   After reading Craig Thompson’s Habib, where a little girl marries an older man (considered rape in most countries) I can see that he obviously connects with kids who are getting screwed, which is what this story is about. He and his brother live in the attic, share a bed, and if they make so much as a sound, their abusive father locks one of them in a closet. Don’t bother screaming that there are spiders in there or you’re afraid of the dark, because a guy who locks his kids in the closet won’t give a damn what they’re going through. If you wonder what motivates his parents to act like this, one word: RELIGION! Their parents are nut-job Christian fundamentalists, and they lay a massive guilt trip on the poor kid when he’s caught drawing a nude woman. It’s been said that people who go to church have fewer problems in life, but I have to wonder if Mr. and Mrs. Thompson use religion as an excuse for sadistic behavior.

Because his parents are so strict, he doesn’t learn to make decisions. He gets beaten up at school by the older boys, then molested at home by a teenage babysitter. The parents send him to some stupid Christian camp during the winter break (what kind of kid wants to spend his winter break at camp?) and he gets bullied there too. That is, until at age 16, when he meets a bunch of teenage misfits who flip the bird at authority. One of them, a girl named Raine, takes a liking to him, and that’s where the dynamic suddenly changes.

Raine’s family is even more messed up than Craig’s. She has two adopted siblings, both of whom are retarded, and the burden of caring for them falls on her. Her parents are not preparing those (adult) kids for independent living, and to top it off, she has a narcissistic older sister who takes parenting duties very lightly. I got the feeling that during the time Craig spends with Raine, he sees the dangers of letting adults make the decisions for you. In his family, his parents dictate what he should think, and in Raine’s family, the parents hand her the responsibility of caring for two retarded adults. It seems to get him thinking harder about his life.

The title Blankets comes from the fact that he and his brother sleep in the same bed, until the parents decide to spend more money getting them their own. But in some ways, Craig is left in limbo. It takes him a long time to really think for himself, and perhaps Raines family is the spur to leave home. Maybe he thinks that this is how he’ll end up if he stays. Being stuck taking care of his parents doesn’t sound fun, does it?

The drawings in this comic are extremely realistic, despite his use of sharp lines. It reminded me of El Greco’s paintings, with their gaunt, hollow-cheeked figures and depressed faces. The style works perfectly here. After all, Blankets is a depressing story about depressed people.