Review - Asterios Polyp

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
Pantheon Graphic Novels

Very occasionally, I read a graphic novel or comic series and think that it might almost be literary in its scope. It's kind of like reading a Joan Didion over Nora Roberts. The monthly comics that come out are quick fun reads, but they are like the schlock fiction that gets released all the time. Other authors take years to complete their works and once they come out, the craft of the work is evident on every page. David Mazzucchelli has created a book that falls into this latter class.

Mazzucchelli is known to me with his artwork on Batman: Year One and Daredevil, written by Frank Miller. But I haven't seen his name much since then. But I was intrigued by advanced press that I was reading about this book and picked it up for myself.

The story is about an architecture professor from Ithaca College named Asterios Polyp, who has won several awards but has never had any of his designs built. The story start with him sitting alone in his apartment. Then a lightning bolt strikes setting his home ablaze. Grabbing a couple items, he then leaves his burning past ending up somewhere in the midwest. Working and living with an eccentric, loving family, Asterios remembers back on his life. He was not perfect. In fact, we was a self centered, egotistical, blowhard. Dealing with subjects like middle age, divorce, self discovery and fulfilment, this book is far more than just what most people would consider a "comic book".

David Mazzucchelli is known as an artist and it is evident in this work. The style is not like most comic books. The style is fluid depending on what the story is trying to say. Sometimes it is very representational while other times he goes into a more surreal tone. But the art always serves the story, and thankfully doesn't read like a movie storyboard. But like good graphic novels, the art expands on the story far more than more prose would add.

This book should be in most libraries and brought out when an adventurous adult comes up and asks for something different to read. Teens would not appreciate or understand most of the themes, so I wouldn't catalog in the YA area. But it's also a shame that most libraries put in the nonfiction collection. Books like this deserve to be placed in a (as yet) mythical collection, adult graphic fiction.