Length Equals Width: Craig Thompson's "Blankets"
[03/08]
by Bill Kartalopoulos
Thompson is clearly aware of structural innovations in a variety of comics; Eisner is not the only creator whose work finds an echo in "Blankets." In Thompson's work, one can detect "found" structures, which offer an opportunity to compare purpose and context. On page 107, Thompson depicts himself as a young man at Bible camp, ill-at-ease among a group of happily singing fellow Christians. Craig, who doesn't sing, resists the "mass mentality" of the group. He pictographically recoils as a common speech balloon issues from deep within the body of each (now enlarged) singer. The united word balloon works fine; the bronchial pointers are a little confusing. The device echoes a sequence in Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli's "Paul Auster's City of Glass." In a series of panels, word balloons issue deep from within a series of symbols, graphically examining the nature of communication and meaning. "City of Glass" uses comics' formal properties to ask how we associate a speaker with a voice, just as it asks how we associate a word with a meaning. In "Blankets," Thompson uses the penetrating pointer for reasons less clear. Perhaps he intends to indicate that sound comes from the diaphragm, or that the singers have internalized the common song. The device's only obvious result is to make the singers grotesque, reinforcing Thompson's subjective point of view and emphasizing his alienation at that particular moment. In short, a device used elsewhere in a probing, artistic sequence is merely used in "Blankets" for its superficial, dramatic effect — and is never seen again.
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