Storyline: N/A
Date: 2003, 2004, 2005
Price: $29.95 US
Writer: Craig Thompson
Artist: Craig Thompson

Synopsis: This sensitive memoir recreates the confusion, emotional pain and isolation of the author’s rigidly fundamentalist Christian upbringing, along with the trepidation of growing into maturity.

Opinion: The story could have easily degenerated into a ‘poor me, pity me’ tale but, I am pleased to note, it didn’t. Craig Thompson, bluntly and honestly shows both sides of the story. He illustrates his own faults, missteps and mistakes as openly as he does the faults, missteps, and mistakes of others.

Read my review after the jump.

The story opens with him and his brother sharing a bed in their ice cold attic room. Being little boys they wrestle and argue over blankets and bed space as any normal kids would do. Enter the father…Craig’s younger brother is shoved into a small, dark, closet for the night, and Craig gets to try and sleep with the guilt that it is his fault his brother is being tortured. The story has a natural flow that kept me turning the pages and leading me through his chaotic childhood of oppressive religious ideals, sexual and emotional awakening, grasping at and finally realizing he is a worthy human being and on into his adulthood.

The stark, black and white, rough graphic style he uses perfectly reflects the over-tone of the story. What I admired most is that he did not show the people who had hurt him, or who were less than kind, as monsters, but as they truly are. People with their own issues, anger, hurts, and disappointments. People with their own demons to face and conquer.

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