I Interview Craig Thompson of “Blankets” and “Habibi”

I spoke with Craig Thompson for Guernica, and I asked him about his new graphic novel, Habibi, and why he chose to set it in the Middle East.

I didn’t mention it in the piece, but during the interview, I was inundated by the sounds of an ice cream truck right outside my door. “Sounds like a circus!” Thompson said. It kind of was.

Here’s how the interview is described in the deck for the piece:

“The author of the lauded graphic novel Blankets discusses the influences behind his new book, the effect of 9/11 on his work, and the decline of the superhero in comics.”

We also ran an eleven-page except from Habibi.