Thompson talks heartbreak and Habibi

Using the release of the Pantheon edition of Good-bye Chunky Rice as a springboard, The (Portland) Oregonian talks with cartoonist Craig Thompson about his youth, early career, and the impetus behind his award-winning Blankets:

"Heartbreak. I left a relationship behind in Wisconsin without any closure. Plagued with longing/romantic idealism, I funneled it into this admittedly premature examination of my youth.

"I was 23 years old, still lost in the melodrama of it all. The surface details were from my childhood and high-school days, but the emotional drive came from the chaos of those early twenties."

Dark Horse editor Diana Schutz, Top Shelf publisher Brett Warnock, artist Steve Lieber and cartoonist Joe Sacco are also interviewed about Thompson's work.

Thompson's now working on Habibi, which will be released by Pantheon next year. "It's an Arabian Nights tale of my own making," he told The Oregonian, "as long as Blankets but more dense. ... I've already taken a shot at Christianity; now I'm going at Islam. Hopefully, I won't be the Salman Rushdie of comics."