by Mike Favila, Senior Editor
I was introduced to Blankets, Craig Thompson’s initial work by a friend who didn’t even read comics. (God forbid, I know) I was really hesitant to buy into the hype that was surrounding that book, but I bought it and was entranced. Although there weren’t many details that were similar in our childhoods, I couldn’t help but be pulled into the world, and feel touched by his journey. Then I became that annoying friend pushing Blankets onto everybody!
His new memoir, Ginseng Roots, is further proof that he hasn’t lost his touch for combining human stories with breathtaking visuals. Though I usually associate ginseng with old Asian aunties at my friend’s houses, I became really caught up in the story of Wisconsin farmers putting their blood and sweat into the ground to grow this delicate root. Throughout, Thompson interweaves the story of his family and the reckoning of growing up and growing out. If you haven’t picked it up yet, do so right after reading this!
ComicsOnline: It was amazing to read that you were funneling your farming ‘pay’ toward buying weekly comics. Do you still have any of your old collection?
Craig Thompson: My brother, Phil, sold the valuable “collector” comics from those long boxes. And he donated a lot of kid-friendly comics to a children’s hospital. But the remainders, the bulk of the collection, he dumped on me recently while he was doing some spring-cleaning. As shown in chapter two of Ginseng Roots, he wanted to get rid of them all. But I insisted we had to preserve them. Who knows if they have any monetary, collector value? But they have priceless value as potent nostalgia containers intimately connected to our childhood, both the long hours we spent re-reading and memorizing those comics, and the long hours sweating in Wisconsin ginseng gardens to earn spending money to buy them.
CO: Your brother figured heavily into the story. How was it to be drawing with him again as adults?
CT: Collaborating with my brother was one of the most fulfilling elements of the book. But I’d originally envisioned he’d have a much larger contribution, maybe drawing hundreds of pages. In fact, Phil contributed about a dozen pages and then ran out of steam. I’d dreamed of drawing on the same piece of paper like we did as children, but Phil only works digitally; so our collaborative pages are half analog, my portion drawn on paper, and his portion drawn digitally. In spite of those compromises, I still think my favorite part of the entire eight-year project was seeing what Phil contributed.
CO: You presented so many complete, human stories in Ginseng Roots. Was there anybody you wanted to include but didn’t?
CT: Definitely the biggest oversight of the book is that I wasn’t able to interview the Mexican laborers that are the primary labor force in Wisconsin ginseng agriculture these days. The farmers seemed very guarded and protective of their laborers, not wanting me to harass them with questions or interfere with their productivity. The Mexican labor force are transported to Wisconsin for a six-month agricultural season, working 16 hour days 7 days a week. And they live an insular life confined to the farm premises. They aren’t allowed US drivers’ licenses, and the farms they live on are in the middle of nowhere. Finally, none of them speak English, except for the foreman. I brought a Spanish-speaking friend of mine along on one of the interviews; but again didn’t feel comfortable disrupting the laborers’ work flow.
CO: As an Asian American, I found Ginseng Roots to be both respectful and loving of Asian culture. You mentioned being worried about crossing into appropriation. What finally tempered those fears?
CT: Thank you, Mike! Probably it was visiting South Korea, for both book tour and ginseng research, that assuaged my fears. Everyone I met in Korea – my publisher, readers, and especially the press – seemed excited for me to draw a book about ginseng, and they emphasized that it must include Korean and Chinese culture to be truthful and complete. If I’d grown up working in corn or potato agriculture, perhaps the story would have been purely about homogeneous small town America. But it seemed the entire point of ginseng is that it was a crop that was primarily consumed and valued in Asia, rather than my tiny Wisconsin town that grew it. The book had to be about this symbiotic relationship and interconnectivity, and of course about globalization – via agriculture, economics, and broader culture.
CO: My kids loved Space Dumplins! Have you ever considered another children’s book, or a follow up in the same universe?
CT: That’s great to hear. Send your kids my gratitude! The biggest thing I learned making Space Dumplins is that the kids market requires a SERIES. I wish Scholastic (who published that book) had suggested breaking that single volume into a trilogy – it would have gotten a lot more traction that way. I actually wrote an outline and partial script for a sequel to Space Dumplins, but I ran out of energy to draw it. I have a habit of not repeating myself with any project. Then again, I circled back to memoir, childhood, and family 22 years after Blankets so maybe I’ll circle back around to Space Dumplins or at least an all-ages book in the future.
CO: Is your tour schedule published anywhere? What is the best way for your fans to reach you?
CT: I’ve been touring for nearly a year already! My first events were in Warsaw for the Polish edition as far back as May 2024. Then September in France and Belgium, October in Spain and Germany, November in Italy and Austria… March 2025, I returned to Germany and Spain. As of today, I just wrapped one month of domestic book tour. One more month to go. You can find the tour details or direct message me on my Instagram account @craigthompsonbooks.
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