Thursday, April 24, 2014

Goodbye Chunky Rice

The other day I read Goodbye Chunky Rice by Craig Thompson. This semester I read Habibi and Blankets for the first time. Craig Thompson created both of those Graphic Novels, too.

It’s hard to believe that the guy who created Blankets and Habibi also wrote Goodbye Chunky Rice because how different they are stylistically.  Instead of keeping it on the borderline of realism, he uses anthromophic personifications to create his main character and some supporting characters. (Namely a turtle and mouse mixed in with a largely human citizenry.)

The narrative feels very Thompsonesque, you can tell he was a pretty moody dude. And that’s okay. As long as he’s not like, forcing himself into emotionally heart wrenching situations so he has something to write about—which I doubt he is—than it’s all “good in the hood” so to speak.

All his work in cinematic, and I believe each of his books deserve to be read in one sitting. I feel like that was kind of the point of them.

What Thompson does well, that you see other astute authors and graphic novelists doing, is he is taking very old and simple ideas or story archetypes and he’s updating the plot for the modern reader.

What I’m trying to say is that his works can be summed up in one sentence. Which is good, because he goes much deeper than one sentence in his works.
Here: Blankets—A coming of age story.
Habibi—A story about love
Goodbye Chunky Rice­—Saying farewell to those you’ll never see again.


Check out his Craig Thompson’s work if you haven’t already. It’s a great place to start.

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