Good-bye, Chunky Rice

by Craig Thompson

Overview

The Harvey Award-winning debut graphic novel from the internationally acclaimed author of Blankets—about a turtle who heeds his inner voice to leave his fishing village and his best friend to embark on a life-changing journey.
 
This here be the first ever “graphical novel book” by Craig Thompson. It was winnning a Harvey Award, no less. It documentates the once upon a time in our fishing village town and a short turtle lad name of Chunky, last name Rice.
 
Mister Chunky Rice be living in the same rooming house likewise myself, only that boy be restless. Looking for something. And he puts hisself on my brother Chuck’s ship and boats out to sea to find it. Only he be departin’ from his bestest of all friends, his deer mouse, I mean, mouse deer chum Dandel.
 
Now why in a whirl would someone leave beyond a buddy? Just what be that turtle lad searchings for? I said you best read the book to find out. Merle said, “Doot doot.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375714764
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/09/2006
Series:	Pantheon Graphic Library
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.58(w) x 7.98(h) x 0.44(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

CRAIG THOMPSON was made in Michigan in 1975, but risen up in Wisconsin and he drawed this very here book after departin’ for Portland, Oregon, in 1997 and missing likewise his chums and girl-buddies.

He’s mostest beknown for his best–sold graphical novel book Blankets—to be winning also three Harvey Awards and two Ignatz Awards. Translationized into thirteen—count ‘em—languages, lands like Morocco and Switzerland and Phoenix, but he’s plopped hisself settled-like in Portland. For the being-time.

Editorial Reviews

Both funny and genuinely touching in turn, Craig Thompson’s Good-bye Chunky Rice is an affecting meditation upon friendship, loneliness, and loss, all delivered with a real feel for the musicality of the comic strip form. This work sings and dances, and you could do a lot worse than to sing and dance along with it. Highly recommended.”
—Alan Moore, creator of From Hell and Watchmen

From the Publisher

Though the title and the deceptively simple character drawings suggest a kids' comic, rarely are graphic novels aimed at adults as sweetly affecting as this. Chunky Rice is a very cute turtle. Dandel, his girlfriend, is an equally adorable mouse deer (as identified by the book, though she appears more rodent-sized than cervine). Chunky must explore the world by water, for that is his nature. As he says, "My home is on my back." Dandel must remain on land, for that is her nature. Before his bittersweet but inevitable departure, the two construct an entire world of sand castles, and he proceeds to tell her a bedtime story, the tale of the doomed lovers of Greek mythology, Orpheus and Eurydice (or, as rendered by graphic-artist Thompson, "Or-fee-us" and "Yourid-uhsee"). It's unclear whether what follows the bedtime story is dream or reality, but Chunky seems to emulate the example of another mythological hero, Odysseus, as he makes his way to what looks to be an ocean-bound tugboat with a grizzled, mercenary captain. Chunky has brought all his prized possessions, including his collection of Motown records, but the country-and-western-loving captain tells him he must travel light for a life on the sea. His shipmates include female Siamese twins, whose different sizes and sleeping patterns complicate their attachment. As Chunky sails the ocean and Dandel drops love letters into bottles carried by the waves, not much happens to propel the narrative. Yet the artistic range displayed within the black-and-white drawings, as Thompson evokes the turbulence and majesty of the sea, shows a more sophisticated command of technique than he employs with his characters (who are almost Peanuts-like).Originally published in 1999, this reprint represents the debut of another promising artist within the Pantheon stable. For characters who must pursue their own destinies, love is as boundless as the sea.

Kirkus Reviews