Noted indie darling Craig Thompson's "Carnet de Voyage"

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Unlike most of his other major work, Carnet has a clearly lighter tone (as opposed to the somber sensitivity and delicacy of Blankets, Chunky Rice, etc.) in part because he ironizes the Craig Thompson character. On more than one page he berates himself for being self-absorbed and mopey, which refreshingly adds levity to the book, one element wanting in his previous work.

As a narrative, Carnet is surprisingly engaging. Its informalness actually disarmed my expectations for the book (i.e. this is not another Blankets) and engaged me with its honesty and intimacy. The narrative breaks down towards the end, however, due to what Craig sez is a combination of laziness, hand pain and a 224-page Top Shelf-imposed limit.

He talks about his hand pain a LOT (part of the reason stemming from the amount of sketching he did for the Carnet and for *gulp* conventions).

― The Dreaded Rear Admiral (Leee), Thursday, 29 July 2004 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't come expecting "Blankets" either, and found myself pretty engaged as I read it on both legs of a plane flight. On one hand, I'd rather not see Thompson give himself over to full autobiographical impulses a la Joe Matt (who he references briefly in the book), because "Blankets" is an exemplar of how to tackle autobiography without wallowing in some of the more -- as you put it -- self-absorbed aspects of the genre.

On the other hand, it's a sketchbook that presents itself as a narrative -- something I wasn't expecting after seeing Chris Ware/ Adrian Tomine/ James Kochalka do the same in a more literal (but engaging, and high quality) form. I really enjoyed it as a compliment to "Blankets" -- and I didn't realize how strong Thompson was as a pen-and-ink illustrator (as depicted in his images of Morocco). Good stuff!

― ng, Sunday, 1 August 2004 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

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