I was recently privileged to study comicsology under the tutelage of Craig Thompson for several weeks at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Which was incredible. Craig has a lot to teach and a unique method of instruction that led me to a lot of important conclusions about making comics, how art should be approached, how to live my life generally, and how to gracefully lose an arm-wrestling match.
One of the unexpected perks of hanging out with Craig was access to an edited copy of Habibi, complete with on-page spelling corrections. Habibi won't be out for another year, but I'm gonna go ahead and tell you why you should read it anyway:
Habibi is LUSH. It is opulent. It is narratively, thematically, and visually rich to a frightening degree. An absurd degree. It is almost offensive. If Habibi were a meal... it is not a meal. It is several banquets served one after another, each more indulgent than the last. And when you have finished the marathon meal, dear readers, you are sated, comfortably full, and unexpectedly refreshed.
Habibi is an artistically generous, utterly compelling, intimately meaningful, and gorgeously crafted comic. No unrealistic expectations about it's quality could possibly exceed it's reality.
READ IT.
Craig is okay, too.
9 comments:
Jake, your work continues to inspire me. Keep it coming.
I am SO jealous that you got to read it a year before everybody else. Well, I guess I'll just have to wait.
Or I could sneak into the secret compound where it is kept.
Or wait. Whichever.
your design sense is impeccable. it makes me sick. the good kind of sick.
the way to lose gracefully is to do it twice in a row, right?
incidentally, I am full of grace.
This is beautiful, Jake! Those patterns are gorgeous and I love the head straining up.
You talk real purty...
Buy yes, you totally described my experience reading Habibi to a t, and your fanart is absolutely, terrifically lovely :)
What does the arabic say?
Two translation sites and a tattoo parlor agree that it says "I love you," which, when not contextualized by the story, sounds incredibly saccharine.
But I promise that it's not! I have, like, eighteen drawings of dead minotaur to prove that I'm not overly sentimental!
If you plan to read Habibi, I insist you to read all the way through--even if the horrible things that happen to the characters cause you to close the book--because the meaning of the story continues to stay in my thoughts. The characters who commit sins are left to poison the Earth and many other characters are forced to have horrible experiences when they deserve better. The only joyful part of the ending is when the two protagonists reunite and then begin to stray from their crumbling society. I am not a follower of religion, though I find it interesting, and Thompson seems to point out the flaws in religion and humanity. This is a one of a kind book.
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