MC Fumunda
09-02-2004, 10:04 PM
It's hard to classify this book. It's definitely not a comic book. Not really a graphic novel. I guess looking deeper into the title of the work can lend an understanding. Basically, it can be summed up as a diary of a trip. Basically an illustrated travelogue.
http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/covers/carnetvoyage_lg.gif
(http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog.php?type=12&title=404)
Published in July of this year by Top Shelf Productions (http://www.topshelfcomix.com/index.php), this 224 page book documents its artist/writer Craig Thompson (http://www.livejournal.com/users/fetorpse/26057.html)'s three month trek through unfamiliar foreign countries, specifically Europe and Morocco. And that is all it is. It isn't a story, at least by traditional definition, and follows no real structure other than the daily sketches and thoughts and reenactments of events during his travels, collected into his sketchbook, and then copied and published. There were only two months between the completion of his sketchbook diary, and its published form.
When reading any sort of bound periodical, I think we naturally look for a "story". With Carnet de Voyage we invariably have a character that sets off on a journey. This has been the basis for countless tales since the dawn of time. Yet the difference between Carnet and the typical journey stories we've all read is that our protagonist doesn't really grow. He basically returns home from his travels on May 14th the same person he left on March 5th -- a lonely, self deprecating, homesick artist who yearns to be with the woman he loves, yet can't be with, and continues to push his art, even though it hurts him so much to do so.
I know this sounds a bit depressing (and believe me, sometimes it is), but that's not all we get from the book. Almost as though it were plotted, he gives the reader tidbits of everything he sees around him. We see the world through his eyes. And he does an incredible job of representing the world he sees through his beautiful illustrations. I've never been to Europe or Morocco, but after reading Thompson's book, I have this second-hand recollection of their streets and towns, buildings, people, trees, and of course their cats. From beginning to end we follow him on his European book tour, press junkets, and trips to strange eastern lands full of teeming crowds of people who dislike Americans a great deal (he told more than a few people he was Canadian).
He was an incredibly brave person to publish this book, in my opinion. It is a collection of his personal thoughts, and he is displaying them for the entire world to see. We get ALL the intimate details, like for instance this excerpt from March 18th…
Woke up with a grumpy tummy. Peptol Bismol = Candy! On the toilet it sounds like pee, even though it's from my butt! A violent anal faucet!
We see his many attempts at connecting with people, with successes and failures. We learn about his crippling arthritis that he fights through every day of his life, pursuing his life as an illustrator. Toward the end, when he’s bitterly homesick and lonely, we root for him when he meets a cool unattached girl.
So really, saying there isn’t a story isn’t true. It’s really a collection of small snippets of hundreds of stories. Some are his, some are those told to him by the people he meets. But one thing is for sure, they’re all beautiful, real, and sincere.
I couldn’t possibly recommend this book any more highly than I do. Pick it up, it’s only fifteen bucks, and definitely worth a couple reads.
http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/covers/carnetvoyage_lg.gif
(http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog.php?type=12&title=404)
Published in July of this year by Top Shelf Productions (http://www.topshelfcomix.com/index.php), this 224 page book documents its artist/writer Craig Thompson (http://www.livejournal.com/users/fetorpse/26057.html)'s three month trek through unfamiliar foreign countries, specifically Europe and Morocco. And that is all it is. It isn't a story, at least by traditional definition, and follows no real structure other than the daily sketches and thoughts and reenactments of events during his travels, collected into his sketchbook, and then copied and published. There were only two months between the completion of his sketchbook diary, and its published form.
When reading any sort of bound periodical, I think we naturally look for a "story". With Carnet de Voyage we invariably have a character that sets off on a journey. This has been the basis for countless tales since the dawn of time. Yet the difference between Carnet and the typical journey stories we've all read is that our protagonist doesn't really grow. He basically returns home from his travels on May 14th the same person he left on March 5th -- a lonely, self deprecating, homesick artist who yearns to be with the woman he loves, yet can't be with, and continues to push his art, even though it hurts him so much to do so.
I know this sounds a bit depressing (and believe me, sometimes it is), but that's not all we get from the book. Almost as though it were plotted, he gives the reader tidbits of everything he sees around him. We see the world through his eyes. And he does an incredible job of representing the world he sees through his beautiful illustrations. I've never been to Europe or Morocco, but after reading Thompson's book, I have this second-hand recollection of their streets and towns, buildings, people, trees, and of course their cats. From beginning to end we follow him on his European book tour, press junkets, and trips to strange eastern lands full of teeming crowds of people who dislike Americans a great deal (he told more than a few people he was Canadian).
He was an incredibly brave person to publish this book, in my opinion. It is a collection of his personal thoughts, and he is displaying them for the entire world to see. We get ALL the intimate details, like for instance this excerpt from March 18th…
Woke up with a grumpy tummy. Peptol Bismol = Candy! On the toilet it sounds like pee, even though it's from my butt! A violent anal faucet!
We see his many attempts at connecting with people, with successes and failures. We learn about his crippling arthritis that he fights through every day of his life, pursuing his life as an illustrator. Toward the end, when he’s bitterly homesick and lonely, we root for him when he meets a cool unattached girl.
So really, saying there isn’t a story isn’t true. It’s really a collection of small snippets of hundreds of stories. Some are his, some are those told to him by the people he meets. But one thing is for sure, they’re all beautiful, real, and sincere.
I couldn’t possibly recommend this book any more highly than I do. Pick it up, it’s only fifteen bucks, and definitely worth a couple reads.