Similarly, his skill is impressive both in representing Arabic writing-which he has said he does not understand-and Islamic design, an art tradition that incorporates geometric patterns as a way of suggesting the endlessness of an Allah who cannot be represented figuratively. When Thompson deals with such weighty matters, he does so with a touch which is both light yet freighted with significance. A river of water becomes a river of ink, which then becomes a scribble on the page, which resolves into the flowing letters of an Arabic verse-one which refererences the Word of God. Even readers who imagine themselves less than interested in such philosophical musings are apt to be touched by the power of these pages, as the illustrations perfectly convey the poetry that underlies them.

The story, set in an imaginary Middle-East-cum-North-African sultanate called Wanatolia, incorporates a good deal of material concerning calligraphy, the Qur’an, and the different ways that the Bible and the Qur’an approach iconic stories such as that of Abraham and Isaac. He’s also mighty good at, and mighty fond of, drawing nubile naked young women, but we’ll get to that later. To the extent that the book succeeds, it succeeds largely because of Thompson’s skills as a draftsman. Thompson is one of those artists who can pretty much draw whatever he wants, and his subjects here-whether human forms, Arabic calligraphy or abstract geometric patterns-achieve a wonderful balance. The book is beautiful, from its faux-leather hard covers to its compellingly rendered black-and-white drawings. Instead, it’s just another footnote in the long and dreary history of Western portrayals of the non-Western world.

In many ways it succeeds admirably, and it ought to be a landmark in the development of the graphic novel as a serious form that tackles heavyweight subjects, alongside Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Joe Sacco’s Palestine and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. Thompson is a skilled storyteller and a terrific artist, and this volume, which clocks in at over 600 pages, is a massively ambitious undertaking. Craig Thompson’s Habibi is a tough book to review, because on some levels it’s a remarkable achievement, while on others it’s an undiluted disaster.

Habibi comic