Ginseng Roots #1

by Craig Thompson

Craig Thompson, best known for his blockbuster graphic novels Blankets and Habibi, has returned with a serialized comic book called Ginseng Roots, which is about his childhood growing up in Marathon Wisconsin, the one-time centre of American ginseng production.

As a kid, Craig and his brother Phil worked through the summers alongside their mother, picking weeds and caring for ginseng plants on large farms that specialized in the delicate and lucrative root.  As we learn about how this labor shaped him, we also learn a great deal about the root itself, its needs, and some of the folklore and history that surrounds it.  We also see how the Thompson boys' love of comic books helped motivate them to work in difficult conditions (they calculate their wages in number of comics they can buy per hour).

This is a very solid piece of work, beautifully illustrated and coloured in grey tones with red highlights.  The book itself is printed on newsprint, giving it a real old-school feel, but is also beautifully drawn.

This series is expected to last for twelve issues, which is interesting to me because this first one feels so complete.  I'm not sure where Thompson intends to go with this from here, but I can see a wealth of potential, considering how unique the ginseng industry was (and probably still is), with its difficult manual labour, its great potential to create millionaire farmers, and the intricacies of interacting with a largely Asian market in 1980s middle America.

I like that this book is going to be serialized, and while that is going to make it more expensive than a one-off graphic novel would be (despite what the photo says, this issue's cover price is $5), it will make the individual issues something to be treasured.

Blankets

by Craig Thompson

I can't really explain why it's taken me this long to read Blankets, especially since I read Thompson's incredible Habibi as soon as it came out, but I read a lot of comics, and there are a lot more that I've never read, so it happens when it happens.

Blankets is a beautiful, beautiful book.  It's a very honest look at Thompson's early days, living in a remote farmhouse in Wisconsin as a child, and it follows him through his first love in his final year of high school.  More significantly, it looks at his evolving ideas about religion, and how he eventually walks away from the harsh, unforgiving Christianity of his parents.

As a kid, Craig is an true outsider.  He's artistic and sensitive, uninterested in sports, drinking, or drugs.  He does not easily fit into large groups, but also at home, is not all that interested in spending time with or getting to know his younger brother.  Craig is not mean or snobbish, he's just pretty self-sufficient.

In high school, as he's forced to attend yet another Christian camp during his winter break, he meets Raina, a girl from Michigan who is just about a perfect match for him.  They have a lovely (chaste) time together at camp, and then begin a relationship held through the mail.  Eventually, Craig is invited to stay at her house for two weeks (it says a lot about how trusting both kids' parents are that they never even assume there could be problems with this), and we get to see their relationship grow.

I'm not sure to what degree Thompson chose to fictionalize some of these events, but what we get to see is one of the more touching coming of age stories I've ever read.  Craig is the type of kid who feels sad sitting next to the girl he's in love with because he knows that soon he won't be.  Raina, on the other hand, is dealing with a lot at home - her parents are divorcing, her sister keeps using her to babysit her baby, and her other two (adopted) siblings have intellectual disabilities of differing severity.  She's looking for someone to make her feel less alone and overwhelmed, but is not exactly after the level of commitment that Craig is.

Woven through all of this is the austere Christianity that Craig's been raised in.  He's been taught forever about the rewards of heaven (which, to be honest, sounds pretty terrible, even if you like to sing), and has been singled out as a good candidate for seminary school from an early age.  He reads the Bible nightly, but, as we see, begins to question a lot more than word choice in the various translations.

This is a very good read.  Thompson's art is lovely, and he plays with layout and design in interesting ways.  He is able to convey a great deal of emotion in pretty simple facial drawings, and makes great use of white space (the snow that blankets Craig's life so often) to help focus the narrative.  I can easily understand why this is such an acclaimed graphic novel.

Habibi

by Craig Thompson

Craig Thompson's Habibi, which came out in 2011, is easily one of the best graphic novels I've read this year, right up there with Chris Ware's Building Stories for its literary value and emotional weight.

It tells the story of two orphans, Dodola and Zam, as they escape slavery together, and then re-enter it separately, always looking for the other.  The story is set in Wanatolia, a fictional Sultanate, and the time period in which it takes place is fluid, as the beginning of the book feels like it is set in the late 19th century, but by the end of the book, we are firmly in the modern world.

Dodola was a child bride who was pressed into slavery when her husband was killed by the Sultan's men.  There she found a three-year old boy, who she took with him when she escaped and re-named Zam.  They lived together for many years in an abandoned boat, marooned in the middle of a desert, where she sold herself to passing caravans in return for food.  To entertain the child, Dodola told him stories, many of which are the foundations of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

As the two grow, they become very close, although Zam's first sexual stirrings create a rift between them.  When he learns what Dodola does to protect him, he starts travelling to the city to sell the water he finds, so as to emancipate her like she did him.  This doesn't work though, and they become separated from one another.

Dodola ends up in the Sultan's harem, where she is his favourite, and eventually gives birth to his son.  Zam, meanwhile, ends up in much worse circumstances, living with a group of transgendered eunuchs. Eventually, they find each other again.

This book is about a whole lot more than just the relationship between these two tragic figures.  It is also about the power of stories themselves, and the words and letters that form them.  Thompson takes us through the similarities between Islam and Christianity, and the visual poetry of the Arabic alphabet. He also condenses into his tale a great deal of social commentary about Islam, gender politics, and the changing role of the sexes.

This is a very sensual book, with Arabic letters and nude human bodies lounging around in the harems and village bathtubs.  I'm sure when it was released there were charges of Orientalism levied against it, as Thompson portrays a culture and tradition that is not his own, but nothing here feels artificial or forced.  Instead, this is an absolutely gorgeous book, which I find myself thinking about again and again in the days since I've finished reading it.

The CBLDF Presents Liberty Annual 2011

Written by Matt Wagner, JH Williams III, AJ Lieberman, Brandon Montclare, Steve Niles, Carla Speed McNeil, Kazim Ali, J. Michael Straczynski, Dara Haraghi, Judd Winick, Richard Starkings, Mark Waid, and Dave Grilli
Art by Fábio Moon, Gabriel Bá, Matt Wagner, JH Williams III, Riley Rossmo, Joelle Jones, Michael Montenat, Carla Speed McNeil, Craig Thompson, Kevin Sacco, Christopher Mitten, Thiago Micalopulous, Rodney Ramos, Shaky Kane, Boo Cook, Jeff Lemire, and J. Gonzo

I've never bought an issue of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's Liberty Annual before, but seeing a number of creators I admire attached to it, I figured it was time to give it a try.  As with any anthology like this, the stories within are a pretty mixed bag, but I definitely admire the goals of the organization, which provides legal assistance to people in the comic book world who face censorship or legal difficulties related to comics.  The CBLDF is a champion of free speech, and as such, the stories and strips in this book are concerned with promoting that freedom.

There is a large emphasis in this issue on the rights of gay, lesbian, and transgendered people.  Many stories focus on that, but none more effectively than Kazim Ali's memoir strip, which is beautifully drawn by Craig Thompson.  Compared to it, Matt Wagner's story, which features Hunter Rose, feels amateurish and ham-fisted.

Also of note in this book is JMS's rant about the separation of church and state, which raises some good points, and Mark Waid and Jeff Lemire's defense of superhero worship in children.  Carla Speed McNeil has a strip about her child, who has Down's Syndrome, and the ridiculousness of trying to maintain a vocabulary that doesn't cause offense.  Dara Haraghi and Christopher Mitten contribute an interesting story about growing up in Revolutionary Iran, which would be a nice companion to a story in the last issue of Dark Horse Presents.

Another item that is worthy of discussion in this book is the nude Elephantmen, just because that's not something you see everyday.

This is a very decent anthology, and really, anyone who loves comics should be willing to plunk down the $5 to help support the cause.