Blankets

I really liked blankets, it was a very nice coming to age story with theme of it's better to have loved and lost then to never of loved at all. The art was expressive with its bold black lines. Blankets told a story that almost everyone can relate to your first love as a teenager.

The story starts out with the main character Craig and his brother sharing a bed when they are young children, the fight over the blankets. You then follow Craig through school, he is an outcast and is often made fun of and beat up. As he grows older it shows that he attends a church camp every year, through faith he expects to find salvation but he finds to be in the same situation he is in at school. Made fun of because he is different because he is poor. One year he meets other outcasts that he enthused about until he finds out that two of them do drugs and pressure and judge him like all the other kids but this time for not being different enough. Among the outcasts he meets Raina who he is instantly taken aback by, their friendship blossoms when they are at camp. After camp they continue to talk through letters and on the phone everytime Craig talks to her he falls more and more in love with her. He convinces his parents to let him visit Raina for a few weeks. At Raina's their relationship blossoms even more, and Craig finds out how stressful and how much baggage Raina carries through her family. She sews him a quilt. After Craig leaves Rainas house to go back home not to long after they break up becuase Raina needs some space she still wants to be best friends, but soon after there communication stops all together. Craig burns everything that reminds him of Raina except for the blanket he made for him. Craig moved out of his house and established a life elsewhere. When he finally returns home for Christmas one year he reconnects with his brother and feels he still has the universe in front of him.

I was disapointed by the ending of the comic, probably because I am female and wished for some sort of reuinon from Craig and Raina but no such thing happend. It was then that I realized the moral of the story its better to love and loose then to never have loved at all. It was a sweet graphic novel that I enjoyed reading, I was also suprised that I was able to read through it in one sitting since it is around 600 pages. It hit home with me as well, I went through something just like thi story in high school. First love one of the mandatory parts of growing up.