Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson Review

Craig Thompson recounts his 1980s childhood in the small Wisconsin town of Marathon, famed for its major export, ginseng, in this memoir, Ginseng Roots. As well as telling us how he and his family spent their summers working the farms, making sure the precious plant (called by the locals “shang”) reached harvest, he goes back home to see how the area and people are now, and relates the history of the medicinal root.

I love Craig Thompson’s books so I’m sorry to say that Ginseng Roots was really, really boring! There’s so little here that’s worth reading. Craig and his siblings spend their summers weeding, picking rocks, berries, and roots, they spend their money on comics - and…? The history of ginseng was even more tedious and never-ending, and the history of agricultural farming in the region felt like filler. He also introduces his younger sister Sarah for the first time (she was intentionally left out of Blankets) though her inclusion doesn’t really add anything to this book.

But I did appreciate how much thought he’s put into the aesthetic aspects of this series. True to the theme of “roots”, Thompson returns to his comics roots, so that this series has been released as single issue comics rather than his usual graphic novel format. The comics are printed in his home state of Wisconsin, and I loved the look of the black, white and red colouring, red like the ginseng berries (even the staples are red!).

And Thompson is a first class illustrator - this is a gorgeous-looking book. The pages have a wonderful fluidity to them as panels merge into other panels and the pages are beautifully laid out and designed. Back-up strips by Craig’s little brother Phil are also included, again going back to the idea of “roots” when the two of them would draw comics as kids. While they’re also not that interesting, Phil could’ve also become a professional cartoonist if he’d pursued it like Craig.

This series is projected to be 12 issues long (and will probably be eventually collected into a trade/hardcover) but I doubt I’ll be back to read the second 6-issue run if it’s anything like this first 6. If you’re gonna check out Ginseng Roots, don’t expect much from this slow-moving, dry, unmemorable, and largely uninteresting series, besides lovely art. If you’ve not read them already, I recommend Blankets and Habibi instead.