CRAIG THOMPSON’s previous graphic novels include Blankets (for which he received three Harvey Awards for Best Artist, Best Graphic Album of Original Work, and Best Cartoonist; and two Eisner Awards for Best Graphic Album and Best Writer/Artist); Goodbye, Chunky Rice; and Carnet de Voyage. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
“Exquisite … HABIBI is a remarkable feat of research, care, and
black ink, and a reminder that all "People of the book," despite
the division of their individual traditions, share a mosaic of
stories.” –Zadie Smith, Harper’s Magazine
“The character depth, plot complexity, and storytelling in this
lyrical, sexual, and scholarly epic would make any novelist proud….
Thompson strings compositions that are often more tapestry than
comics and that balance graphic design, illumination, calligraphy,
and cartooning in steady alignment. It is unfair to expect two
masterpieces in a row from anyone, but here Thompson sits securely
in that rarefied air.” —Booklist, starred review
“A lushly epic love story that's both inspiring and heartbreaking….
In addition to richly detailed story panels, the gorgeous Arabic
ornamental calligraphy makes each page an individual work of art. A
dense, swirling dervish of a tale … this will be the most talked
about graphic novel of the fall.” —Publishers Weekly, starred
review
“The exquisite beauty and deep magic of this Arabian Nights-style
love story cannot be overstated.... Habibi is certain to join the
ranks of graphic novels that expand our understanding of not only
the genre but also the world it describes.” —Library Journal,
starred review
“Habibi lifts the bar of graphic storytelling to new heights, both
by the intricate, dramatic density and breathtaking scholarship of
Thompson’s panels and by the sheer scale and decorative beauty of
his flowing, roiling, protean style. Thompson is the Charles
Dickens of the genre, able to capture all the scary, heartbreaking,
brave, uplifting details of his characters’ fates while
orchestrating the big-picture machinations that connect them to the
lives and times of his readers…Habibi is a masterpiece that surely
is one of a kind.” —Elle Magazine
“A graphic novel that is sure to attract attention…. A mature—in
all its meanings—glimpse into a world few Westerners are at home
with, and Thompson is respectful throughout.” —Kirkus
“Habibi has classic written all over it. It’s a modern literary
triumph, a book so broad and magical in its scope, only a master
could pull it off. This is no ordinary comic, it is a complete work
of art. Beautiful, thought provoking, both timeless and of its
time…. An awe-inspiring read you can’t afford to miss” —Grovel,
graphic novel reviews
“Easily the best graphic novel of the year, and probably the
decade…. Thompson’s line work here is beyond brilliant, combining
myriad styles and capturing the rich historical legacy of the
cultural and religious volumes that inspired it. This is a work
that truly changes the game and sets a new standard for all the
graphic novels that follow it.” —GraphicNovelReporter.com
"Craig Thompson's new graphic novel, Habibi, is a masterpiece. This
isn't an opinion. This book is a gorgeous object; to make it,
Thompson apparently covered himself in honey and rolled around in a
thousand years of Arabic calligraphy and Islamic art, and the
result is breathtaking.” —The Boston Phoenix
“Erotic, grotesque, and profoundly moving…. I don’t think I’ve ever
read a book quite like this, and I expect I’ll be thinking about it
for a long, long time.” —Boing Boing
“Layered, daring, and brilliantly told—an intricate story of love,
religion, desire, survival, poverty, hope. It’s drenched in
metaphor and rich with double meanings. Yet for all it takes on,
Habibi feels light on its feet; throughout, we feel Thompson
reveling in his skills as a writer and artist. Its exuberance, even
in its darkest moments, feels somehow celebratory. I’m not sure
that I’ve read a better graphic novel…Thompson’s own work is
manically elaborate and ingeniously laid out; he’s become expert at
moving the eye through exploding, dexterous panels.” —The
Millions
“Mere words—or at least my mere words—seemed not enough to even try
to convey just how intricate and ornate, lush and seductive,
arabesque and sometimes knowingly grotesque this artistic epic is…a
visual masterpiece.” —Comic Riffs, Washington Post blog
“Like the elegantly dense mosaic patterns that Thompson fills the
background of his pages with, Habibi is a book that weaves isolated
shapes into an overpowering tableaux, its pieces carefully fit
together and subtly repeated until a gorgeous unity emerges.”
—National Post
“Relentlessly virtuosic ... It is a tribute to Thompson's skill as
a cartoonist that the transition from an old fashioned Orient to
modern Babylon leaves few visual seams." —New York Times Book
Review
“While the storytelling is gripping, surprising, and emotionally
and intellectually hard-hitting, it almost takes a back seat to the
artwork that is alternately robust and fragile. Thompson's deft,
assured lines have never been more delicately and profoundly inked
than here…This book is a monument of intelligent, vibrant design,
all in service to the story.” —Barnes and Noble review
“Brilliantly imagined … celebrates the power of the artist to tell
a story with ink teased into magisterial letters and visual
images.” —Newsweek
“Thompson makes a good third of the other illustrators out there
look like total chumps. Each page is carefully designed with
recurring motifs–that draw from sources like the Qur’an and other
storytelling traditions–to add multiple layers of meaning to every
moment. Scenes of city life and vast endless oceans of sand are
drawn with such attention to detail that you’ll be staggered
imagining a human being crafting the images with human hands and
commonly available tools…It’s a story told with technical precision
and real, honest-to-gosh passion, and if you cry at the end it
won’t be because you’ve been successfully manipulated—it’ll be
because this world and these characters have come to mean something
to you, and you’ll miss them once you reach the final page.”
—Richmond News
“If you haven’t been exposed to the work of Craig Thompson
yet, you have been deprived of a true aesthetic experience…. To say
the work is visually stunning is an understatement. Thompson’s art
is simple black and white inking, yet his ink strokes convey a
sense of live movement as if you’re watching the characters move
across the page…. don’t dismiss Habibi as a book of pretty
pictures. While the artwork is incredible, Craig Thompson’s Habibi
is a book that will affect your heart.” —Wit and Fancy blog
site
“Artistically, it's the most gorgeous book I read this year, with
compositions and layouts weaving together effortlessly and with
endless depth and detail…an outrageous success, and worth every bit
of time Thompson spent on it. As great as this year was in comics,
Habibi might have been the best thing I read in all of comics all
year, and it makes me all the more excited to see what Thompson
will be up to next.” —MultiversityComics.com, “Best Graphic Novel
of the 2011”
“The intricacy of patterns and motifs (both visible and
metaphorical) hold the text together and astound in their
complexity. In the world of Habibi, art is never divorced from
meaning; drawings are symbolic verse, words twisted into new
shapes…. Habibi is about the power of words to carry and envelop
us, and in Thompson’s beautifully written novel, the reader
experiences a similar magic.” —ALARM Press
“Habibi is a confident, powerfully drawn graphic novel, telling its
tale with passion, humor and an endless understanding of the human
condition…. A graphic novel masterpiece that explores what it means
to be human through religious story, slavery, prostitution and
personal and societal struggles within the industrial and third
worlds.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review
“A lush commentary on love and lust, wealth and want, religion and
storytelling…the power in this tale lies in human passion,
sometimes cruel and sometimes sweet, combined with its geometric
precision and deep sense of the sacred.” —Harvard Crimson
“Lushly illustrated, at times unbearably sad and unexpectedly
erotic.” —Paste Magazine
“To read Habibi is to sink into the sensuous arabesque patterns
that decorate its pages. Steeped in the imagery and storytelling
traditions of the Muslim world, this densely layered love story is
as grand and sustained a performance as any cartoonist has
published…. Thompson’s fluid, evocative artwork is pretty
miraculous too.” —Time Magazine
“Habibi is like a big, rousing, unabashedly tear-jerking Dumas
novel, with fascinatingly intricate designs and fabulous tales on
almost every page.” —Salon
“It’s impossible to read this book and not walk away with a deeper,
more profound understanding or appreciation for not both Arab
culture and for the subtle and varied ways in which populations
portrayed as enemies are in fact alike. Thanks to Thompson’s deft
storytelling, ‘Habibi’s’ seemingly daunting 700-plus pages can go
by in a breeze; you won’t want them to, though, because his
delicate, yet ornate art make this a story you won’t want to
finish.” —Deathandtaxesmag.com
“Audaciously ambitious. Just the decorative and calligraphic
elements of its design alone are enough to recommend this volume.”
—Icv2 review
“Executed with enormous empathy and something that in earlier times
would have been called divine inspiration, Habibi is an
extraordinary milestone in the world of drawn stories. Who would
have thought that black ink could make such complex, soul-filling
music?” —FT.com
“Habibi is a triumph of creativity. Thompson dazzles us with his
pen strokes, with his mastery of storytelling, his research,
plotting and characterisation. The book is destined to become an
instant classic, confirming the author's position among not only
the most masterful of graphic novelists but our finest contemporary
writers, regardless of medium.” —The Independent
“A fascinating exploration of a foreign cultural tradition by an
American cartooning auteur at the height of his powers…. never
anything less than a breathtaking visual and intellectual
experience.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Brilliantly imagined … it celebrates the power of the artist to
tell a story with ink teased into magisterial letters and visual
images.” —Daily Beast
“The art and lettering are both stunning and Thompson has rendered
a complicated, dense story that truly elevates the medium.” —Forces
of Geek Holiday Gift Guide
“A subtle and engrossing tale that encompasses everything from
Islam to climate change…Thompson is a consummate storyteller, and
his talent shines through in every line, every frame, and every
speech bubble…In a medium that’s still dominated by masked
crusaders, Habibi stands testament to the ongoing versatility of
old-fashioned pen and paper.” —Culture Mob review
“Craig Thompson doesn't fail to impress with yet another
beautifully crafted graphic novel…The art is breathtaking, and the
imagery that pulls the whole thing together help the reader step
out of the everyday and enjoy this rich mythology illuminating
universal human truths about love…It is a beautiful book. The
illustrations are exquisite. Holding it in one's hands, and
reading it for the first time, is quite the experience.” —Lari is
Writing blog review
“Thompson is a superb artist…Habibi is a success.” —Washington
Times
“The work of an artist creating at the height of his powers with a
confidence and an artistry that reveals grace in every pen stroke,
in every panel, and it deftly makes greatness look easy… The scope
of this book is simply massive and what it achieves is not only
unique for a comic book or graphic novel, but also important and so
relevant to the times in which we all live…This is an important
book that, hopefully, will be read by as wide an audience as
possible. It completely deserves all the attention and all the
praise that’s sure to come its way. Craig Thompson has created
something truly special here that will surely be read and reflected
upon for generations to come.” —TheShortBox.com
“Habibi isn't just Thompson's greatest work yet; it's one of the
most beautiful novels I've read this year…The artwork is elegant,
striking, reverent.” —The Portland Mercury
“This is almost without question one of the most important graphic
novel releases of the year. It overflows with elegant, elaborate
and brilliantly composed hybrid imagery.” —warmoth.org
“Habibi reminds one of nothing so much as the work of novelist John
Barth, with its clear love of patterns, narrative, and
beauty…incredibly compelling and readable on many levels.” —Paste
Magazine
“Utterly engrossing…Dodola’s and Zam’s stories are interwoven with
the stories they learned as children, the underpinnings of Islam.
This lends not only beauty and texture but also meaning and
redemption to their suffering, and Thompson’s handling of the
religious elements—something that might have been awkward or
controversial—is restrained and graceful. His black-and-white
drawings, often incorporating Arabic script, are at times floaty
and feverish but always perfectly clear. He breaks up dreamy
exposition with tightly structured action sequences, and the pages
couldn’t be prettier. As always, his economical writing is deeply
moving. Habibi is a book not to be missed.” —Bookpage
“A fairy tale that's by turns tender and bawdy and brutally
dark…Habibi is a stunningly beautiful art object: 672 painstakingly
intricate pages that astonish with their sheer level of detail, the
way a ship made out of toothpicks, or the Eiffel Tower up close,
astonishes.” —East Bay Express
“Well-researched (Thompson reportedly worked on this project for
more than a decade), this dark and mature adventure tale melds the
modern Middle Eastern world with its rich mythology from the Quran,
and is detailed with its mix of the area’s landscape, people,
symbology and particularly the Arabic calligraphy in all its
ornamentation…a page-turner that might be best consumed in smaller
bits to better appreciate the depth and breadth of the story.”
—Honolulu Star-Advertiser
“These are real people living on the page in ink, and Thompson has
sculpted characters that are perfectly imperfect… Habibi stands as
a new masterwork in American comics, and a graphic novel seriously
worthy of sharing shelf space with Salman Rushdie and Umberto Eco.”
—Bleeding Cool
“With Habibi, Craig Thompson elevates the graphic novel form to
even higher levels.” —GraphicNovelReporter.com
“Part adventure epic, part exploration of Middle Eastern folklore,
Habibi is a work of tremendous scope and jaw-dropping ambition…
Habibi looks to be Thompson's next great book.” —Critical Mob
“A massive masterpiece…Habibi’s pages are rich with ornamentation.”
—Willamette Weekly
“Habibi is a visual banquet, a veritable feast of brushstrokes and
intricate detail. Thompson uses eastern design and the beautiful
Arabic script to weave the story together in a soft, organic flow
that floats along from panel to panel, page to page in rich,
breathtaking beauty…a truly magnificent book, one that is
compelling, thoughtful, emotional and visually Beautiful.” —Comic
Book Movie
“A fascinating look at the thinking, tinkering, and creative
process behind the making of the iconic comic…MetaMaus offers a
rare glimpse inside the mind of a genius storyteller, using
Spiegelman's celebrated visual eloquence to illuminate the deeper
psychological and sociocultural elements that underpin his
thoughtful, provocative, masterful classic.” —The Atlantic
“In addition to fine storytelling, Thompson's artwork rose to
higher level with Habibi. Still operating in black and white,
every panel aches with the amount of detail present. Sprawling
two-page layouts throughout the book just bleed style and
substance…the story is expertly told and drawn.” —Tennessee Tech
Oracle
“Richly detailed… Habibi fits in the grand literary tradition of
stories about stories and the effect they have on us.” —National
Post
“The year’s most critically acclaimed graphic novel.” —Wausau Daily
Herald
“Part fable and part history, Habibi is all novel: In the end, you
care profoundly for Thompson’s protagonists.” —Time Out New
York
“The magic here is twofold: Dodola's love for Zam, which transcends
all other loves, and the wise stories…And what images! Thompson's
brushstrokes give us villains with weight, smoke that wriggles,
architecture that positively grows from the page.” —San Francisco
Chronicle
“Impeccably researched and beautiful…a fount of delight for the
attentive reader; a work of staggering ambition…Habibi was not just
written or drawn; it reads like it was practically birthed in a
tremendous effort of will.” —WSJ “Live Mint” blog
“Thompson is a masterful comic book artist with the ability to fill
pages with life: the amount of detail he includes in some of his
drawings is incredible and astounding, as is the sheer scope of the
work…there’s no denying that Habibi is a work of art.” —Wired
Magazine, Geek Dad blog
“Thompson took the literary establishment by its starched lapels
and made the case for graphic novels as capital "A" Art.”
—Flavorpill.com
“A highly anticipated heavy hitter who did deliver was Craig
Thompson with Habibi, one of Phil Guie's choices for best of the
year. Massive in scale and ambition, Habibi is essentially a love
story of two slaves told through a brilliant integration of classic
storytelling and religious iconography.” —Critical Mob, Critical
Books of 2011
“Set in a never-named country of the Middle East (or North Africa),
Craig Thompson’s dystopian Habibi is an epic love story, a primer
on the Koran, and a cautionary tale about human greed and
squandered natural resources, all in one exquisitely rendered
volume.” —Straight.com’s best graphic novels of 2011
“A gorgeously drawn fairy tale…That it's a book that supports
debate marks it as the most interesting comic of the year. That
every one of its 655 pages is tremendously engaging and
astonishingly beautiful marks it as the best comic of the year.”
—NPR best graphic novels of 2011
“Incredibly gorgeous. Expect Habibi to join Maus on college
syllabuses soon.” —Comic Book Day: Top 5 Comics of 2011
“Exotic and lush, yet heartbreaking at times, Thompson’s book is an
exploration of the Islamic culture by one of comics’ most deft
craftsmen.” —NewsOK blog
“Staggering in scope and ambition, this massive book (700 pages)
delivers page after page of art that your eyes can get lost
in…Thompson carries you to someplace new and different, asking for
your trust in his pen and ink, and if you give it to him, the
rewards are grand.” —Comics Waiting Room.com
“A beautifully told and drawn story, as complex in its narrative as
in its drawings.” —OnMilwaukee.com
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
