Some books arrive in the right hands at the right age and become permanent. Blankets is one of them. Craig Thompson's 592-page autobiographical comic — published by Top Shelf in July 2003, this true first printing — drew its weight from the things it was willing to say plainly: that a fundamentalist childhood marks a person, that a brother is the first witness to your life, that snow can stand in for grace when you have not yet figured out where grace lives. It established the autobiographical graphic novel as a sustained literary form — a single-volume work booksellers shelved alongside serious prose memoir. Time named it the #1 graphic novel of 2003. Harvey and Eisner sweeps followed in 2004.
A bibliographic note for collectors: two 2003 first printings exist. A small convention edition of roughly 500 copies appeared in July with a different cover; the trade edition with the familiar cover followed in late August. Both share the ISBN and the "First Printing. July 2003." indicia on the copyright page. This copy is the trade edition — the one most collectors mean.
Surviving copies of the first printing in this condition are uncommon. Most were read hard. This one was not. Shelved upright, never bent, the cover stock still flexes correctly. For the collector of post-2000 graphic novels, the first printing is the only edition that matters.
Condition: Near fine throughout — exceptional for this title. Spine straight, uncracked, no roll. Corners sharp. Covers clean, no creasing or scuffing. Interior pages bright and unmarked. First printing confirmed on the copyright page. Unsigned. From a smoke-free, climate-controlled collection.
ISBN 1-891830-43-0. Trade paperback, as issued.
Some books arrive in the right hands at the right age and become permanent. Blankets is one of them. Craig Thompson's 592-page autobiographical comic — published by Top Shelf in July 2003, this true first printing — drew its weight from the things it was willing to say plainly: that a fundamentalist childhood marks a person, that a brother is the first witness to your life, that snow can stand in for grace when you have not yet figured out where grace lives. It established the autobiographical graphic novel as a sustained literary form — a single-volume work booksellers shelved alongside serious prose memoir. Time named it the #1 graphic novel of 2003. Harvey and Eisner sweeps followed in 2004.
A bibliographic note for collectors: two 2003 first printings exist. A small convention edition of roughly 500 copies appeared in July with a different cover; the trade edition with the familiar cover followed in late August. Both share the ISBN and the "First Printing. July 2003." indicia on the copyright page. This copy is the trade edition — the one most collectors mean.
Surviving copies of the first printing in this condition are uncommon. Most were read hard. This one was not. Shelved upright, never bent, the cover stock still flexes correctly. For the collector of post-2000 graphic novels, the first printing is the only edition that matters.
Condition: Near fine throughout — exceptional for this title. Spine straight, uncracked, no roll. Corners sharp. Covers clean, no creasing or scuffing. Interior pages bright and unmarked. First printing confirmed on the copyright page. Unsigned. From a smoke-free, climate-controlled collection.
ISBN 1-891830-43-0. Trade paperback, as issued.
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