Writer and artist Craig Thompson pushed the envelope of the graphic novel with his second work, Blankets, an autobiographical production that Ken Tucker, writing in the New York Times, called an "illustrated novel" rather than graphic novel. Andrew D. Arnold, writing in Time.com, stressed the literary aspect of that work as well: "Part teen romance novel, part coming-of-age novel, part faith-in-crisis novel and all comix, Blankets is a great American novel." This impressive work came four years after Thompson's first attempt at the genre, Good-Bye, Chunky Rice, a parable of friendship and maturation that featured talking animals. Thompson's focus in both works is on what it means to grow up; what coming of age really portends in terms of a young person's emotional life.

Born to Draw

Thompson was born in Traverse City, Michigan, in 1975, but grew up near Marathon, Wisconsin, a "homogenous farming community," as Thompson...