Ginseng Roots is a comic-book masterpiece

In the past, if I thought of ginseng at all, it brought me back to the 80s, when branches of the Body Shop were sprouting across Britain like mushrooms, and everyone in my city was wildly excited about the opening of an outpost of herbal store Culpeper. But then I read Craig Thompson’s new comic book – in which he uses the knobbly root not only to tell his own story, but also that of a certain part of the US from the 18th century – and ever since, I’ve thought of it with nothing short of wonderment. How could so unprepossessing a crop result in such outlandish creativity? As fat as the Bible that Thompson’s parents kept at home when he was growing up, Ginseng Roots is an achievement and a half. Part memoir, part history and part herbal, nothing else like it exists.

As readers of the earlier Blankets (2003) will know, its author grew up in rural Wisconsin in a fundamentalist Baptist family, a realm from which he longed to escape; his parents appear in this book, older and less strict, when he returns to his home town, Marathon (pop: 1,200), to research the history of ginseng, or “shang” as American growers call it. For here’s a fascinating fact: Wisconsin has produced ginseng for global markets for centuries – a crop that, depending on the weather and demand, has sometimes made farmers rich and sometimes left them poor. As a boy, Thompson and his brother would earn pocket money picking the root in nearby ginseng gardens. It was hard work. They breathed in dangerous pesticides; they came home as filthy as miners. But it was worth it. They spent their meagre wage on their beloved drugstore comics.

It’s hard to overstate the vast scope of a book that gambols at speed from 17th-century China through to the Vietnam war, taking in along the way such things as acupuncture, shamanism and global warming (also – yes – the nascent Make American Ginseng Great Again movement). It’s amazing to learn that when the US won its independence, the export of ginseng helped pay off some of the $66m national debt that had accrued; the first American ship, loaded with furs, silver and 30 tons of ginseng, set sail for China in 1784 (the ginseng was reputed to be worth 250 times its weight in silver). Comics are usually a quick read, but every one of Thompson’s pages is a veritable encyclopedia, their corners filled with information like this.

But it’s funny and warm, too. Thompson experiences a health crisis while he’s working on the book (perhaps ginseng can work a miracle on him?) and exhibits a touching vulnerability throughout. Even now, he feels guilty at the contrast between his parents’ tough lives and the fact that he has spent his adult years in front of a drawing board. In Marathon, he interviews them – and their neighbours, some still growing shang – and he’s patient enough to listen to what they have to say, even when he disagrees (though his father complains about the damp winters, he won’t concede the planet is getting hotter). Thus, Thompson gently brings you close to a part of the US you could never know otherwise. His fellow cartoonist, the great Joe Sacco, has already called Ginseng Roots his masterpiece, and I see no reason at all to disagree with him.

Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson is published by Faber (£25). Order your copy from observershop.co.uk for a 10% discount offer. Delivery charges may apply