Top Shelf has announced that Craig Thompson's Blankets will be released in July as a 592 page, 6-1/2' x 9-1/2' trade paperback at $29.95.  Thompson's first graphic novel release from Top Shelf, Good-bye, Chunky Rice, was a critical and commercial success; Blankets is expected to be bigger.  Set in a Wisconsin winter, the story explores the sibling rivalry of two brothers and the budding romance of two coming-of-age lovers. 

 

Top Shelf released some laudatory quotes with the announcement, which are notable.  Neil Gaiman (who knows something of Wisconsin winters) said, 'I thought it was moving, tender, beautifully drawn, painfully honest, and probably the most important graphic novel since Jimmy Corrigan.'

 

Brian Michael Bendis said, 'Blankets officially confirms Craig Thompson's place in the world of graphic novels as one of the true greats.'

 

With those kinds of kudos and a solid fan base from his first graphic novel, Blankets has the opportunity to be one of the break-out 'alternative' graphic novels of the year.