Every now and then, something major happens in your life. Sometimes it's an event, sometimes it's a work of art. In the case of a work of art, "Blankets" had the effect on me that few things have. I can only compare its impact with that of other works of art, in different arts, like "American Beauty", "Six Feet Under", The Eels, Tori Amos, Nirvana, JD Salinger, and many other artists whose work have both inspired and reassured me that I wasn't alone in the way I saw the world and lived my life.

"Blankets" is definitely a landmark in the history of comics/cartoons and visual arts. It is because it does things that neither cinema nor literature can do, and I believe that in between cinema and literature is precisely where comics/cartoons fall. Books like "Blankets" give the genre its "letters of nobility" as they say in French, and it reveals the incredible power that the art can convey.

I have rarely been so touched by any kind of art before in my life, even musically, and I cannot tell you enough about this wonderful book. It is not easy to read, it will scar your soul, but on the whole, it will taste and feel like life, and you'll know you're not alone.

Craig Thompson is a genius and I'm still thinking about the amazing narrative skills he showed in "Blankets"; terrific transitions, superb parallels, unbelievable imagery and coherence of thoughts.

If you like snow as much as I do, you will love it. If you don't, you will learn to. It's so beautiful, I won't even try to review that. You have to experience this book.

But be sure that this is not easy to read, and I mean that emotionally. It's indeed filled with real emotions, from more than just the main character, so much so that you will feel quite a lot throughout the book.

I won't even say anything about the plot or anything, just that you have to trust me and read this book. You won't regret it, and you will be touched.

Just an excellent comic all around. Good art, good story, good for all ages 15 and up.

Craig uses a very simple style to tell a very deep story, a story about teenage love, loss, and growing up. I think the simple style helps in some ways, because it allows us to inject our own dreams and memories into the comic. In some ways it reminds me of Maus, which used a very simple style to tell a deeper story. I actually prefer it to Maus, but I think the nature of the story is quite different.

The only qualm I had about this book was that it was over way too quickly, being a 500 page book, it can be read in about two hours. If you liked Jimmy Corrigan, Maus and bittersweet true life stories, check this one out.

I'm a college English instructor, and so I suppose that I should have a natural bias against graphic novels as such. I've only glanced at other examples of the genre, and this is the first time I've actually sat down and attempted to read a graphic novel from start to finish. Wow. "Blankets" is really stunningly beautiful and moving. I thought the opening section, and its pacing, was pitch perfect, and I really never reached a page that didn't seem (to me) to ring poetically true about authoritarian religion, life, first love, and the development of the self. Blankets, as a title, works for the whole novel because it is a story of "embowerment" (as well as empowerment). In other words, beds and blankets function in the text as the places where one burrows in safety and self discovery. While reading, I thought of Jonah in the whale. The book is life affirming, and it makes me want to discover the graphic novel genre further. I'm sold.