This week, I dove into the works of famed cartoonist and writer, David Mazzucchelli, particularly into one of his finest, yet more recent works, the graphic novel known as Asterios Polyp.
Asterios Polyp follows the life of the title character, an architect and college professor of Greek and Italian descent, with the uncanny ability to learn and memorize anything he reads. Despite winning numerous awards for his works, in actuality, though, none of Asterios's projects have ever actually been built. After his apartment burns down in a fire due to a lightning strike, Asterios takes a one way trip as far as his money can take him to the town of Apogee, where he quickly gets a job as an assistant auto mechanic, with his new boss providing room and board for him as well. While he works in Apogee, he goes on a soul searching journey as the story goes back and forth between the present day and to his past with his childhood and his troubled married life with his ex-wife Hana, a fellow college professor working in the sculpture department. We also learn that Asterios had a stillborn twin brother named Ignazio with whom, all throughout the book, Asterios has numerous visions and discussions. It is also implied at some parts in the story that Ignazio acts as the narrator during the flashback sequences.
Asterios Polyp is a very well done graphic novel. Probably one of the best aspects is the story itself, which has a unity to it, as well as explores the ideas of duality and other groups such as reason vs emotion, destiny vs free will, and many, many more. There is so much information being thrown at the reader that one almost needs to read the book multiple times in order to soak in all of the information and understand it. Due to the character's Greek heritage, this also plays a part in the story, with the Greek tale of Orpheus being a reoccuring theme. Another aspect that stuck out to me was the art and the direction the artist took with it, something that David Mazzucchelli is known for. The standard art used all throughout the comic is quit simple, but very nice and appealing. However, all throughout the piece, the two main characters, Asterios and his wife Hana, will, at times, distort into a completely different style, usually matching their personalty and occupation. This seems to happen when one of them goes all out in discussing one of their own ideas or beliefs, but it also seems to occur whenever their relationship takes a rocky, sometimes distant turn. Due to being very stiff and analytical, as well as his occupation as an architect, Asterios's body takes the form of more geometrical shapes, while the more artistic Hana becomes softer and more like a smudgy, oil painting. The color choices used are also very interesting and help with the idea of unity. The artist uses just the three colors, blue, pink, and yellow, with blue being the main color asterios is drawn with and pink for Hana, while yellow is often used in places like the modern day in Apogee and the numerous sequences with Ignazio.
Overall, I found Asterios Polyp to be a very interesting piece, in both regards to its story and its art direction. Both are fun and unique and are quite appealing to the readers. It also features many unique characters, and its approach on the topic of stillborn twins and its focus on the subject and symbolism of duality and relationships makes an interesting read.
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