jeudi, septembre 08, 2005  Semi-autobiographical, the stories drawn in Blankets read like the book's namesake - soft and gentle. Told in a series of "chapters", this novel was not serialised before publication, the general practice for a graphic novel this thick. Think of Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes strips running for about a year or two before the comics come out - Craig Thompson dared to go the other way instead, and published the whole novel without serialization. Bravo. Craig Thompson tells well-written stories about childhood and his brother, about religious church camps and first loves, about discovering faith and losing it. The stories are nostalgic, but never overly sentimental, and he manages to articulate all the things I feel is wrong about Christianity and certain institutions' perceptions and interpretations of how we should live our lives -but never once does Thompson lay the blame on anyone or any institution - he seems to have acknowledged that we are all ill-informed, frail beings, and are just trying to make the most out of what we have been given. I think my pastor would appreciate reading this book. It's definitely not for people who don't want to think about Christianity, and/or what their faith means to them, but for persons out there who are tired of the usual dogma, this offers a refreshing view - not necessarily the "right", sanctioned view, but definitely an unusual one.  The story (so far) - Lucifer Morningstar has abdicated and left hell. He let all the souls go, made a mess of things (which God sorted out), had Morpheus (Neil Gaiman's The Sandman IV: Season of Mists) cut off his wings, and is now a piano player in a jazz bar. There's another god in town, created by somethings which live or exist below the surface - and Satan has been hired on an ad-hoc basis by heaven to handle the situation. Satan asks for something in return, and it is given. He does the job, collects the reward, and then spends the rest of the time mucking about with humans and a deck of demon-possessed cards or something. I rather like the stories; I am also slightly disturbed by how well-written they are. It humanizes satan, and makes him an extremely sympathetic creature - a god, but without the "Jesus hangups" of belief and heaven and hell. It's "religion-lite" for the masses - capitalist wish-fulfillment. Lucifer Morningstar: open for business - we trade 24/7, 365. It makes spiritual apathy that much more attractive, as it presents another alternative to the gospel, which some view as outmoded, or untrue, or of having rigid tenets impossible to follow. I'm not too sure if I'm going to keep following the series. It's rather seductive... like the serpent himself. [Two Graphic Novels] |
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