Graphic novelist Craig Thompson grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family in Marathon, Wis., and his only access to the arts were through the Sunday "funnies." Deeply inspired by comics, Thompson decided early on that he wanted to be an artist or film animator.
In 1999, he released his first graphic novel, "Goodbye Chunky Rice," and, the same year, started working on what would become his 600-page autobiographical novel, "Blankets," that would later receive critical acclaim. Time magazine named "Blankets" the no. 1 graphic novel of the year in 2003 and it received numerous other awards.
In 2004, Thompson started working on "Habibi," which was published by Pantheon in September. The 682-page book is inspired by Arabic calligraphy, makes allusions at times to and draws explicitly from western religious mythology.
The coming-of-age story revolves around Zam, lovingly referred to as "Habibi" by his caregiver Dodola, who rescues him from slavery and lives with him in a boat in the middle of a desert. Zam has feelings for Dodola that change over time. As he ages, he sees her less as a mother and more as a soul mate.
Uncomfortable with himself and his burgeoning sexuality, for lots of reasons including religious, Zam ultimately agrees to have his penis cut off, and lives for a time in a community of eunuchs. This happens during a period of separation from Dodola, who has been kidnapped and sold back into slavery – this time to complement the harem of the local sultan. The rest of the book details how they are able to come back together – and what happens once they do.
"Habibi," which is a pet-name like "honey" or "baby," is a beautifully told and drawn story, as complex in its narrative as in its drawings. Thompson spent many years researching western religions. It's a sort of post-apocalyptic vision, but its historical time is never really pinned down and in a sense is located across history into the future.
The depictions of sex and of women's bodies are explicit (and, of the latter, often beautiful), but like any Hollywood film not wanting an explicit rating, the main reproductive organs are not depicted.
OnMilwaukee.com recently caught up with Thompson to chat about "Habibi," his Wisconsin roots and his plans for the future.
OnMilwaukee.com: How long did you spend researching religion for this book?
Craig Thompson: I had five Muslim friends who served as core consultants for the Islamic details. I read the Koran. I guess you could say I have been researching religions, on some level, since I was 4. I grew up in an evangelical Christian household.
OMC: Do you write and draw the story at the same time, or do you focus on one aspect and then the other?
CT: I spent two years writing and researching "Habibi" before I started drawing seriously. I mean, I'm drawing all along, loose thumbnail drawings, but I started out with the story. In the end, "Habibi" was about 10 drafts.
OMC: "Habibi" is almost 700 pages long. Did you set out to write a graphic novel this lengthy or did it just naturally evolve into such a long novel?
CT: I started out with modest goals and expectations. I thought it would be between 200 and 300 pages, but then it spiraled out of control. But this is a necessary matter of working. If you knew how much work something was going to be from the beginning, you'd never get started. Simple goals got me going, and then letting it spiral was part of the pleasure.
One of the drawbacks of the comics medium is that it's too abbreviated.
OMC: How did the editors at Pantheon feel about such a lengthy book? Were they concerned about going over budget?
CT: The editors at Pantheon all have a literary take, and they let me roam freely as an artist. I didn't have deadlines – I got mostly everything I requested – from the gold foil on the cover to the type of paper used.
OMC: So when does "Habibi" take place? At times it feels like the past, at times the present and other times, it feels like a post-apocalyptic vision of the future.
CT: That's about right. I see it as a fairy tale that's drawn from all different time periods and places. People want to say the book takes place in the Middle East, because of the desert, but it is as much rooted in America as Persia as Vietnam or anywhere. OMC: The story takes place in a world that has an extreme lack of water. Is this something you are particularly concerned about in real life?
CT: The water shortage element of the book was not my original plan for the book's message, but it was an unavoidable theme considering the world we live in. And my father was a plumber, and even though I would label him politically conservative – he doesn't believe in Global Warming – he takes the water crisis very seriously. Because of this, I grew up with a very vivid sense of human waste and the fact somebody has to deal with it.
OMC: Do you draw every day?
CT: Yeah, otherwise I go a little crazy. I take weekends off, sometimes, but I still might make a couple of doodles.
OMC: So, you grew up in Wisconsin, right?
CT: Yes, I grew up near Wausau and moved to Milwaukee in 1996 to go to MIAD. I spent one semester there, but then realized I didn't want to take out any more loans, so I worked a series of bad jobs. I just wanted to work on comics and being a student didn't leave me much time to do that because, back then, comics were a discouraged medium.
OMC: So graphic novels have really gained popularity in recent years?
CT: Yeah, they barely existed. And it wasn't a college major, but now programs (for comic / graphic novel design) exist all over the country. Almost simultaneously when I wrote "Blankets," there was a big change in publishing and graphic novels caught the attention of retailers and librarians and readers and then academia. Yale was the first school to teach "Blankets" in a literature course. Now it's common.
OMC: How do you like living in Portland (Ore.)?
CT: Well, I have been here 15 years so I must enjoy it, but I go through periods of restlessness. And I didn't like it when I first got here. It seemed like a seedy, grungy town back then where it rained six months out of the year. Now, it's like the hipster capital of the world – that's not necessarily a good thing – but there are some amazing aspects. It's small enough that everything seems accessible, and you can bike everywhere, and there's a very vibrant foodie culture and arts scene and you have access to the mountains and forests.
OMC: Each one of your books is very different. Do you do that on purpose?
CT: I deliberately set out to create a different book every time, otherwise I'd get sick of the project. I don't want to be a Charles Schultz-type artist. It seems a little suffocating to me even though what he did was pretty amazing.
You wouldn't find a novelist who writes the same setting in every book. I always think of Beck: each album is a totally different genre from the last.
OMC: What's next for you?
CT: I'm doing an all-ages graphic novel. I am yet to do a book that's kid-friendly and I want to give back to the kid in me that discovered the medium. And I want to do something less serious and fun, especially since I am also working on something much more serious. It's a non-fiction graphic novel about global trade, but I'm being secretive about this.
This is my first non-fiction graphic novel. "Habibi" was augmented with research, but it was based on my imagination. This next one will be very researched-based. It will get fact checked.
OMC: You wrote the female character of Dodola very realistically. Especially the parts when she is pregnant. Did you interview women to write this part so accurately or were you able to do it intuitively?
CT: I talked to friends who had been pregnant, but mostly, I just wrote it. I have always been closer to my mother than my father – I have the reoccurring theme of problems with father figures in my books – so writing from a woman's perspective felt natural.
OMC: Do you have other job or do you support yourself entirely through your graphic novels?
CT: These days, I am lucky enough to only work on my books. I was working as an illustrator for a long time, but now, 100 percent of my time and income are from graphic novels. I can't complain.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
