Carnet de Voyage

(Top Shelf, 2004)
™ and © Craig Thompson

Part travelogue, diary, and sketchbook, this is a passport into a creator’s personal journey on the rollercoaster of public success and private insecurity. Buoyed by his best-selling opus Blankets, Craig Thompson takes time out to tour Europe, ostensibly to do PR and research but actually to mend a fragile psyche.

He decries how his canny publisher has convinced him to write a journal about his journey to make an instant graphic novel. But it actually is a therapeutic exercise as much as a commercial one. While he details a tourist’s travails, he also chronicles his struggle with the trappings of fame and his ongoing search for fulfillment. Signing autographs becomes a grinding chore instead of a reward, as he confesses he needs healing for a cramped drawing hand and a broken heart.

Pining for companionship (i.e., a new girlfriend), he records reality as he inadvertently changes it. Alternatively embarrassing and inspirational, Thompson manages to crank out another success despite himself.

— Oliver Chin

Jump to issue:

Notes

Writer

Artist

#1

July, 2004
Cover Price: $14.95
1 copy available for $12.99

Craig Thompson