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Craig Thompson is the Terence Malick of comics. Eight years after BLANKETS pretty much set off the whole literary graphic novel goes mainstream movement, HABIBI, his 600-page exploration of Islamic culture, will finally be released on September 20th.

The book will be $29.95 — 672 b&w pages — clothbound hardcover with stamped gold foil, and look something like the mock-up above. On the right are a handful of cover ideas that didn’t make the cut. Thank you ALL for your New Year’s greetings and your continued patience in this long, drawn-out process. Thank you for not giving up on me after so many years. Looking forward to meeting and catching up on the upcoming tour.


Thompson has been teasing a few images and pages on his blog for the last few years…what’s been seen looks lyrical and lush.

According to Random House’s page for the book, it will also be released as an ebook.

Will this be the most talked about graphic novel of 2011? It will certainly be in the running!

1 COMMENT

  1. Okay… cue people complaining that the e-book costs the same as the hardcover…

    Interesting. This will be the second graphic novel e-book from Random House, after “O8”.

  2. Jason…
    1) 09.11.2011 is a Sunday. Books are usually released on Tuesday to capitalize on news media coverage. Weekends are slow news days… no one would hear about it.

    2) 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of The Tragedy. Expect massive amounts of press coverage that day, with little else covered. Again, it’s Sunday, and most people do not watch news programs on the weekend.

    3) Linking this book to The Tragedy would be a mistake.
    a) People would criticize the publisher for riding the coattails of the event, as well as commercializing it. Consider how much animosity there is to the various street vendors around the World Trade Center site, hawking souvenirs.
    b) Just like the proposed mosque, this book’s proximity to the event would generate negative publicity.

  3. I don’t think Blankets is above criticism, but it was definitely a beautiful book in a lot of ways, so I look forward to seeing Thompson switch gears a bit.

  4. Looking forward to this murder-weapon thick comic! It must suck to be a muslim cartoonist and release a comic on islamic culture after this.