Thursday, March 25, 2010

Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson


I enjoy travelling because I enjoy opening myself up to new experiences, learning new things and seeing how other people live their lives. That's also why I enjoy reading travel writing. Craig Thompson spent three months travelling on his own in Europe and Morocco in the spring of 2004 - which overlapped, incidentally, with one of my trips to France. It was cool to remember the same Miro exhibit at the Pompidou Centre. His travel diary is mostly composed of sketches - places and people - together with his commentaries. It isn't a polished work. It feels very personal, sometimes touching and often funny. Thompson's Blankets was translated in France and Spain and his publishers there had organized all kinds of book signings, interviews and appearances at comic conventions. He met up with lots of different comics artists and some of their work is also included in this journal, which is pretty neat. There are several sketches of Thompson done by other artists - a nice multidimensional touch.

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