Craig Thompson opens Carnet De Voyage with a somewhat apologetic disclaimer that this isn't "the next book" to follow up his much-lauded Blankets, but simply a journal of his travels as he gathered research for that next book. He seems a little nervous that folks might come down on him because his last project was brilliant, and that they might not think this travel journal lived up to those standards. In my case, at least, he needn't have worried, because while Carnet De Voyage is a very different book from Blankets, I still think it's brilliant. It is an honest and engaging journal of travel through foreign lands, mixing in personal anecdotes as well as cultural observations, still life sketches as well as sequential art, and the hodgepodge result is a travelogue that makes you feel like you've been on a journey with Thompson, and have experienced these places as vividly as he has. Carnet De Voyage is the cheapest way to take a trip to France, Barcelona and Morocco, but it might also be the most fun way.
One of my true joys on the Internet in the past few years was discovering the travel journal of Marie Javins, as she embarked on a personal quest to see the world. It's the kind of crazy, impulsive and dangerous thing that I'm not personally capable of, even if, as a father and husband, I could realistically pull it off. However, it makes for fascinating reading, and I get some of the same vibe off of Thompson's Carnet De Voyage. Thompson shares a true love for these places he discovers, tempered by some of the inconveniences of the changing customs or laws, and this genuine affection comes through in his writings and drawings.
What is perhaps most impressive about Carnet De Voyage is that travel journals can all too often be a bit dry, a bit dull. Thompson references the dreaded "slideshow" in his disclaimer, and for many folks, a boring parade of slides that have meaning to them because they were there is about where travel journals tend to land on the interest scale. However, Thompson easily slides past this potential landmine, not just by painting the places he visits so vividly and completely, but by including more than a little of himself in this journal. Sure, you may not get the insights that cut right to his core that you did in Blankets, but Thompson's ruminations on the loneliness of being in a foreign country by yourself or the heartbreak he's still suffering over the breakup with his lover make this a personal book as well as a story of travel.
Thompson also makes the book fun, sometimes hilarious, by recounting the stories of people that he met. While many of his anecdotes show the customs and people that he deal with as interesting and unusual, his travel journal also quite clearly illustrates that strange and funny people are everywhere. Thompson gets across the infectious joy of the children that he sometimes stays with, or the amusing stories of foreign friends who take it as their role to "teach" him things, in a very light and funny way, without ever making fun of the places or people he has visited.
Then there is the artwork, and oh man, the artwork is gorgeous. Most of us take cameras on our trips, and can bring back some stale photographs of what we've seen, but Thompson goes one better, because in his art, he can capture the natural beauty that he sees, but he also embellishes somewhat with his style, and the result is that the places are so alive and interesting. We get to see not only the place, but how an artist views the place, and there's a definite magic there. In addition, Thompson varies his subjects, from beautiful portraits of people he knows to shots of markets and buildings to natural splendor that he sees, so that his vision of the places he visited is all-encompassing. Carnet De Voyage would be worth the purchase as a Thompson sketchbook alone, even if the storytelling weren't so fascinating.
We're all waiting with bated breath for the next big graphic novel from Craig Thompson, after Blankets came out and wowed so many. However, I would encourage fans of Thompson's work, or simply fans of travel stories, not to miss out on what is an equally impressive graphic novel, because despite the disclaimer at the front of the book, this is the next big book from Craig Thompson.
