Everyone asks when the new book will be out. I’m aiming for 2009 which sounds forever away, but that’s a tight schedule that requires me working almost every day. This blog might be a forum for sneak-peeks — not sure how much I’m willing to reveal though…
In any case, here’s page 72. The second chapter (of nine) was completed last week.
I read Blankets just as I was falling in love for the first (hopefully only) time. It’s so honest and sincere. Everything I was feeling, mostly insecurity, was beautifully captured in your panels. It’s been such an inspirational work for me and I’d like to thank you for having the guts to bear your soul to us.
This will be cool to have a place to check out what you’re working on - you’re one of the best “young” artists I know, and I’m looking forward to your next book
The page is beautiful. I too, am excited about seeing your next book. Have loved your work for years now. The line work is incredible.
Thank you for sharing your work with us.
Well, lookie lookie who’s online! Nice place your brother set up here. Reminds me a little of one of those rooms Cher likes to spend thousands decorating, and then never lives in. Hopefully this is changing?
The page looks great! Always good to see some craig! I’m always impressed when cartoonists are able to plan out their page schedule so far in advance. I never have any idea how much work I can do in a day till its over.
Hi Craig,
I read your interview on the daily cross-hatch, and i totally hear what your’e saying about alternative comics being nihilistic and cynical. Ive got a day-job doing clerical work. I look at tax documents all day in a financial aid office. But, surprisingly, I feel like this kind of monotony brings balance to my freewheeling artistic exploration. I would never have thought this in a million years. But I think youre right: people need to live healthy, even if it means the art-pace slows. For me, i worried that if i got healthy, i wouldnt have anything else to say. But thankfully, that turned out not ot be the case.
Good shit Craig! Looks superb. Can’t wait for 2009.
Regards from sunny Barcelona. It was a pleasure to meet and interview you on the comic con. Hope to see you around here soon; maybe lend you my cell phone again to call someone you met the day before, hehe.
Abrazo!
Hey! welcome to the blogosphere (as they call it!) I’m really happy to see how you share your things with your fans.
I loved Blankets and I had so much fun reading your Carnet de Voyage. Looking forward to see mor of your works!
Congrats and keep up the great work! greetings from Spain!
Hi Craig, it’s great to read you in a blog!
I’ll link it to my own. Any plan to visit Italy in the next future? Also, the page you posted as a kind of David B. flavor
Looking nice; I particularly like the balance between realism and loose enough a style to create characters that easily relay emotion. No Uncanny Valley-ing here.
Those pages look awsome. I can’t wait for this book to come out. I hope you’re doing well since I read you got really sick recently. 2009 does seem like a long time from now, but at least it gives me something to look forward to for that year already. Take it easy.
I wanted to see what this books looks like, so thank you !
It’s good to see that you are not taking the advantage from your celebrity just to make another book quickly and simply.
I’m sure it will be a great one !
I’m glad I talked to you at Angouleme’s festival this year.. ( http://lifedraw.free.fr/craigthompson.jpg )
Best regards!
I just read Blankets today in one sitting. It was aboslutely lovely. I am the same age as the author and I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian home as well, so I appreciated many of the aspects so well-portrayed in the book that are unique to that kind of upbringing.
I now consider myself a Craig Thompson fan and am looking forward to reading his other works, including this new one.
Thanks for the preview. Not only does it look beautifully detailed, but I am really excited that you are telling a story from a female perspective. I think that this change is point of view will be a really interesting shift from previous work. But, as someone else said, life before work (even art). Thank you for puttng your heart and soul on the page and into the world. We are all the richer for it. God bless (however that may look).
The page is beautiful. I’ve always admired the language you have created through imagery and its abiltiy to infuse each story with a subtext that spans the entire work.
I do have a couple of questions: you’d mentioned that having Habibi done by 2009 means working every day…
How long does it take you to get a page down?
Do you storyboard in a more general fashion to see where you’re going or proceed more inutitively?
Do you pencil your novels or go straight to ink? I know Carnet was a bit different because of the nature of your trip, but what about Blanket or Chunky Rice?
Hi Craig,
I just finished devouring “Carnet de Voyage,” which I found by accident, mis-shelved in the public library (in the Historical Biography section).
Your lines! Your gaze! Your writing! Your composition! Your storytelling! You wouldn’t imagine how much you inspire me.
I’m going through it today and copying some of your images just for good practice.
A pleasure to have your blog online. It was a long time waiting since you came to Bilbao to present “Blankets”.It’s nice to see you’re on “Habibi”
When you came to Bilbao you broke ground boy. Ever since the presence of authors round here has grown up really big. Thank you very much for coming it was a pleasure to share some moments with you.
P.D.: 2009! We’ll have to wait then. It was said you drew more than published for “Carnet de voyage”. Will you feed our hunger with it? 0:)_
I’m sure you’ve heard it many, many times down the passage of years, but I would like you to know how much you’ve changed my perception of writing, literature in general. Blankets opened up the world of graphic novels for me (I hadn’t treaded those waters before) and I feel you have made an outstanding contribution to modern strorytelling. Your writing is beautiful and monsterous; compelling and heartbreaking. I’m sure you’ve heard it before. Repetition. But it’s good to get it out anyways.
Craig, i hate you! That page looks gorgeous, you are such a wonderful, talented artist/writer. I cant wait to get this book, true joy is not in the having but in the desire…
Not only in the USA, Italie and France this blog was noticed. Also in the small country Belgium (in the middle of Holland, France, Germany and also England) your readers were posted about the news of Habibi. Look at http://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/StripFacts.php (scroll down in the left side).
I just finished “Blankets” in one sitting and loved it! I love the way the words and art mixed together so that the edge between them was blurred. Really beautiful. I read it just after my first love ended and it reminded me of how beautiful those first days were. Thanks for telling such a beautiful, honest story.
The preview page for “Habibi” is awesome! 2009 cannot come quickly enough!
May 7th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Very excited to read the book. The preview page looks fantastic.
May 7th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
yay!
mazel tov on the new blog!
waiting for the new book!
guy
May 7th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Nice, can’t wait. You look like Steve Carell in that photo.
May 8th, 2007 at 6:47 am
i just read “blankets” last night in one sitting and it was fantastic! definitely looking forward to the next book
May 8th, 2007 at 10:44 am
i’m so happy you have a blog
i love your drawing style (and i love blankets!)
thank you for this beautiful story.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:36 am
weeee.
May 9th, 2007 at 1:39 am
I read Blankets just as I was falling in love for the first (hopefully only) time. It’s so honest and sincere. Everything I was feeling, mostly insecurity, was beautifully captured in your panels. It’s been such an inspirational work for me and I’d like to thank you for having the guts to bear your soul to us.
Habibi is looking great.
May 9th, 2007 at 11:11 am
This will be cool to have a place to check out what you’re working on - you’re one of the best “young” artists I know, and I’m looking forward to your next book
May 9th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Hey Craig,
This Habibi page looks wonderful! Hope to see you on the circuit down the road. And please e-mail Sandy and me so we can catch up with you!
Take care!
Wayne
May 9th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
2009
(
ca’t wait too long!
So, Craig is there a possible of your appearence in Italian Comics festivals in 2007?
Have a nice trip on HABIBI
May 10th, 2007 at 7:19 am
The page is beautiful. I too, am excited about seeing your next book. Have loved your work for years now. The line work is incredible.
Thank you for sharing your work with us.
May 10th, 2007 at 7:56 am
Well, lookie lookie who’s online! Nice place your brother set up here. Reminds me a little of one of those rooms Cher likes to spend thousands decorating, and then never lives in. Hopefully this is changing?
May 10th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Hey, that is looking fantastic! I am impressed how you are mastering the crazy perspectives of Morroccan architecture.
Good to see you blogging. Looking forward to reading more!
May 10th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Great ! Just can’t wait to read the whole book !
Bises
May 10th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
The page looks great! Always good to see some craig! I’m always impressed when cartoonists are able to plan out their page schedule so far in advance. I never have any idea how much work I can do in a day till its over.
May 10th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Hi Craig,
I read your interview on the daily cross-hatch, and i totally hear what your’e saying about alternative comics being nihilistic and cynical. Ive got a day-job doing clerical work. I look at tax documents all day in a financial aid office. But, surprisingly, I feel like this kind of monotony brings balance to my freewheeling artistic exploration. I would never have thought this in a million years. But I think youre right: people need to live healthy, even if it means the art-pace slows. For me, i worried that if i got healthy, i wouldnt have anything else to say. But thankfully, that turned out not ot be the case.
keep hope alive, brother–we’re rooting for you.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Wow! This looks great! Keep up the good work!
May 10th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Gorgeous page, Craig! Now I must wait patiently for 2009 to roll around so I can see the rest.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Already this looks so good.
I really like that you’re able to put emotion into your work, especially when it’s outside your own experience.
As, obviously, you’re not a pregnant woman.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
You can do it, Craig! The new page is beautiful and so is your new blog. =)
May 10th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
ah… sorry for the double post but I just read your interview posted on The Beat. Take care of yourself, man! Happiness before comics!
May 10th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Awesome! Keep up the good work, and don’t be afraid to blog some more.
Oh, and does a 2009 release date for Habibi mean that Kissypoo Garden will be pushed back to make room?
May 10th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Great looking preview page Craig. I can’t wait for the new book. Also, congrats on starting the whole blog life thing.
May 10th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Oh my Gosh, these are terrific news. I’m hopelessly devoted to your art, I spent some good cash buying your books and it was a great decision.
Cheers from Spain
May 11th, 2007 at 12:36 am
it looks so fine!!!
in spain we´re waiting the book
patient until 2009
un saludo!!
May 11th, 2007 at 1:16 am
Good shit Craig! Looks superb. Can’t wait for 2009.
Regards from sunny Barcelona. It was a pleasure to meet and interview you on the comic con. Hope to see you around here soon; maybe lend you my cell phone again to call someone you met the day before, hehe.
Abrazo!
May 11th, 2007 at 2:06 am
Hey! welcome to the blogosphere (as they call it!) I’m really happy to see how you share your things with your fans.
I loved Blankets and I had so much fun reading your Carnet de Voyage. Looking forward to see mor of your works!
Congrats and keep up the great work! greetings from Spain!
May 11th, 2007 at 7:36 am
Hi Craig, it’s great to read you in a blog!
I’ll link it to my own. Any plan to visit Italy in the next future? Also, the page you posted as a kind of David B. flavor
a big, big embrace
From Sardinia
smoky man
http://smokyland.blogspot.com
May 11th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Looking nice; I particularly like the balance between realism and loose enough a style to create characters that easily relay emotion. No Uncanny Valley-ing here.
May 11th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Hey Craig,
Those pages look awsome. I can’t wait for this book to come out. I hope you’re doing well since I read you got really sick recently. 2009 does seem like a long time from now, but at least it gives me something to look forward to for that year already. Take it easy.
-Greg
May 11th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I wanted to see what this books looks like, so thank you !
It’s good to see that you are not taking the advantage from your celebrity just to make another book quickly and simply.
I’m sure it will be a great one !
I’m glad I talked to you at Angouleme’s festival this year.. ( http://lifedraw.free.fr/craigthompson.jpg )
Best regards!
May 11th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Hi, Craig!
This is such a beautiful page–I hope you’ll share more in the next couple of years (!), as it’s always inspiring to see your work.
~raina
May 11th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
It’s good to hear from you Craig!
You fell off the map after Carnet De Voyage.
The page looks goergeous.
Have fun working and keep us posted
May 11th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
I just read Blankets today in one sitting. It was aboslutely lovely. I am the same age as the author and I was raised in a fundamentalist Christian home as well, so I appreciated many of the aspects so well-portrayed in the book that are unique to that kind of upbringing.
I now consider myself a Craig Thompson fan and am looking forward to reading his other works, including this new one.
May 11th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Dear Craig,
Thanks for the preview. Not only does it look beautifully detailed, but I am really excited that you are telling a story from a female perspective. I think that this change is point of view will be a really interesting shift from previous work. But, as someone else said, life before work (even art). Thank you for puttng your heart and soul on the page and into the world. We are all the richer for it. God bless (however that may look).
May 12th, 2007 at 3:31 am
The page is beautiful. I’ve always admired the language you have created through imagery and its abiltiy to infuse each story with a subtext that spans the entire work.
I do have a couple of questions: you’d mentioned that having Habibi done by 2009 means working every day…
How long does it take you to get a page down?
Do you storyboard in a more general fashion to see where you’re going or proceed more inutitively?
Do you pencil your novels or go straight to ink? I know Carnet was a bit different because of the nature of your trip, but what about Blanket or Chunky Rice?
Thanks for creating the blog.
bird.
May 13th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Hi Craig,
I just finished devouring “Carnet de Voyage,” which I found by accident, mis-shelved in the public library (in the Historical Biography section).
Your lines! Your gaze! Your writing! Your composition! Your storytelling! You wouldn’t imagine how much you inspire me.
I’m going through it today and copying some of your images just for good practice.
May 13th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Fantástico!! es una gran noticia… espero impacientemente tu nueva obra… and Greetings from Barcelona!!
May 13th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Damn, Craig, those Habibi pages are absolutely stunning. Sure, creating can be a lonely process, but oh my gosh, look at that reward! You go!
May 14th, 2007 at 10:46 am
I can’t wait for more of your work to fall into my greedy little hands! I have no doubts Habibi will be brilliant.
May 15th, 2007 at 12:41 am
A pleasure to have your blog online. It was a long time waiting since you came to Bilbao to present “Blankets”.It’s nice to see you’re on “Habibi”
When you came to Bilbao you broke ground boy. Ever since the presence of authors round here has grown up really big. Thank you very much for coming it was a pleasure to share some moments with you.
P.D.: 2009!
We’ll have to wait then. It was said you drew more than published for “Carnet de voyage”. Will you feed our hunger with it? 0:)_
May 15th, 2007 at 9:46 am
So happy to find out you have a blog at last!!! Big fan speaking from Hungary.
Blankets and Chunky Rice connected me with my younger self again.
May 15th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
I’m sure you’ve heard it many, many times down the passage of years, but I would like you to know how much you’ve changed my perception of writing, literature in general. Blankets opened up the world of graphic novels for me (I hadn’t treaded those waters before) and I feel you have made an outstanding contribution to modern strorytelling. Your writing is beautiful and monsterous; compelling and heartbreaking. I’m sure you’ve heard it before. Repetition. But it’s good to get it out anyways.
May 17th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Craig, i hate you! That page looks gorgeous, you are such a wonderful, talented artist/writer. I cant wait to get this book, true joy is not in the having but in the desire…
May 17th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Thank you for capturing your ideas so beautifully, and for conjuring feelings I could never articulate.
Best of luck on the new book–I’m certainly looking forward to it.
May 17th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I’m so excited! I still read all of your books when I feel lonely. I’m sure I’ll pee myself when Habibi comes out, too; it looks worth the wait.
May 18th, 2007 at 2:29 am
Not only in the USA, Italie and France this blog was noticed. Also in the small country Belgium (in the middle of Holland, France, Germany and also England) your readers were posted about the news of Habibi. Look at http://www.stripspeciaalzaak.be/StripFacts.php (scroll down in the left side).
May 18th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
I just found your blog - thank you for giving us a taste of what you’re working on. I can’t wait..
May 19th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Yay! Can’t wait to read it.
August 10th, 2007 at 10:47 am
This looks amazing and I think waiting until 2009 is a long time, hehe. Your comics are briliant. Greets from Germany.
October 21st, 2007 at 6:24 pm
I just finished “Blankets” in one sitting and loved it! I love the way the words and art mixed together so that the edge between them was blurred. Really beautiful. I read it just after my first love ended and it reminded me of how beautiful those first days were. Thanks for telling such a beautiful, honest story.
The preview page for “Habibi” is awesome! 2009 cannot come quickly enough!
January 2nd, 2008 at 9:38 am
It looks beautiful already. And good Lord, I’m waiting for this book with high anticipation.