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Review: Asterios Polyp
Asterios Polyp
By David Mazzucchelli
Published by Pantheon Books. $29.95 USD
Asterios Polyp is a character almost as singular as his name. He's a well-respected paper architect, meaning his designs have never been built, and he's a bestselling author of books of architectural theory. There are a few famous living architects, but not many. David Mazzucchelli is a well-respected comics artist, known more by superhero comics readers for Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One, or by art comics readers for Rubber Blanket or as the illustrator for the graphic novel adaptation of Paul Auster's City of Glass. What makes Mazzucchelli unusual is that aside from some short pieces, the work above covers just about everything he's done in comics in the past twenty-odd years. He's extremely selective, plus he has spent time teaching and working at his art outside of paid work. Comics artists really tend to "grow up," artistically, in public.
In other words, he has a great deal of credibility, so when he writes and draws his first graphic novel, it is a real event. And Mazzucchelli is up for the task. The story of Asterios getting thrown from his routine, first by a failed marriage and then by the loss of his apartment, sets him on the road of discovery, where hopefully he will get over himself and grow up, with the help of new friends and a task or two that will call for him to be more giving, less selfish. It's a story told countless times, and to be honest, although the bare bones of it resemble an independent film, what Mazzucchelli brings to it is pure comics mastery, a display of numerous formal devices that fortunately come off joyful and playful rather than pretentious or showy.
It might be fun to try to list all the "tricks" Mazzucchelli uses here, but let's just cover a few. There are larger-than-life, symbolic character names--Ursula Major is a big woman, maybe a little bearish but probably closer to the Earth Mother type; Asterios' wife Hana (Japanese for flower) blossoms during their marriage. Visually, she (and her artistic style, for she's a sculptor) is all curves and soft lines, whereas Asterios favors hard edges and is rigid in his opinions. His design is terrific--his head is shaped like a nail or railroad spike It's also notable that he's mostly seen in profile, which can have to do with him being both one-sided and half a person, as he lost his twin brother at birth. There are also masterful depictions of how people see things differently. It's also interesting for longtime fans that at no point is Mazzucchelli's art ever like his old, famous style(s). It might take a few pages to get used to, but he's so good, it shouldn't matter.
Mazzucchelli does a fine job not losing focus for long on Asterios' marriage, frequently flashing back to the mistakes he makes, some of which aren't seen to be mistakes until later. I appreciated this element, especially as a divorced man myself, because of course if we all had our own movies or books showing scenes from our marriage, we would probably see a lot of choices that seemed fine at the time, but weren't. If Mazzucchelli hadn't spent as much time with these scenes, or had Asterios embark on a new romance, the novel would really have lost its emotional heft.
Some might complain about the character names, which are exaggerated enough to be a little distracting and possibly undercut the seriousness of the work, but to me they were a good choice, because the work doesn't suffer, anymore than Kurt Vonnegut's novels suffered from silly character names. My one complaint is more to do with the plotting, in that while this is developed enough to be able to call it a graphic novel without any embarrassment, there really weren't any complications. Asterios finds his new friends, who will give him work, shelter, advice and purpose, right away, and nothing stands in his way. Eventually, having achieved a small goal (symbolically sound, if a little pat), he heads off to achieve his big goal, and although its left somewhat ambiguous, it seems he makes a very good start. So, while this isn't quite a masterpiece, it's really, really good, easily one of the best graphic novels of the year, and it's so full of visual wit it will reward multiple readings.
By David Mazzucchelli
Published by Pantheon Books. $29.95 USD
Asterios Polyp is a character almost as singular as his name. He's a well-respected paper architect, meaning his designs have never been built, and he's a bestselling author of books of architectural theory. There are a few famous living architects, but not many. David Mazzucchelli is a well-respected comics artist, known more by superhero comics readers for Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One, or by art comics readers for Rubber Blanket or as the illustrator for the graphic novel adaptation of Paul Auster's City of Glass. What makes Mazzucchelli unusual is that aside from some short pieces, the work above covers just about everything he's done in comics in the past twenty-odd years. He's extremely selective, plus he has spent time teaching and working at his art outside of paid work. Comics artists really tend to "grow up," artistically, in public.
In other words, he has a great deal of credibility, so when he writes and draws his first graphic novel, it is a real event. And Mazzucchelli is up for the task. The story of Asterios getting thrown from his routine, first by a failed marriage and then by the loss of his apartment, sets him on the road of discovery, where hopefully he will get over himself and grow up, with the help of new friends and a task or two that will call for him to be more giving, less selfish. It's a story told countless times, and to be honest, although the bare bones of it resemble an independent film, what Mazzucchelli brings to it is pure comics mastery, a display of numerous formal devices that fortunately come off joyful and playful rather than pretentious or showy.
It might be fun to try to list all the "tricks" Mazzucchelli uses here, but let's just cover a few. There are larger-than-life, symbolic character names--Ursula Major is a big woman, maybe a little bearish but probably closer to the Earth Mother type; Asterios' wife Hana (Japanese for flower) blossoms during their marriage. Visually, she (and her artistic style, for she's a sculptor) is all curves and soft lines, whereas Asterios favors hard edges and is rigid in his opinions. His design is terrific--his head is shaped like a nail or railroad spike It's also notable that he's mostly seen in profile, which can have to do with him being both one-sided and half a person, as he lost his twin brother at birth. There are also masterful depictions of how people see things differently. It's also interesting for longtime fans that at no point is Mazzucchelli's art ever like his old, famous style(s). It might take a few pages to get used to, but he's so good, it shouldn't matter.
Mazzucchelli does a fine job not losing focus for long on Asterios' marriage, frequently flashing back to the mistakes he makes, some of which aren't seen to be mistakes until later. I appreciated this element, especially as a divorced man myself, because of course if we all had our own movies or books showing scenes from our marriage, we would probably see a lot of choices that seemed fine at the time, but weren't. If Mazzucchelli hadn't spent as much time with these scenes, or had Asterios embark on a new romance, the novel would really have lost its emotional heft.
Some might complain about the character names, which are exaggerated enough to be a little distracting and possibly undercut the seriousness of the work, but to me they were a good choice, because the work doesn't suffer, anymore than Kurt Vonnegut's novels suffered from silly character names. My one complaint is more to do with the plotting, in that while this is developed enough to be able to call it a graphic novel without any embarrassment, there really weren't any complications. Asterios finds his new friends, who will give him work, shelter, advice and purpose, right away, and nothing stands in his way. Eventually, having achieved a small goal (symbolically sound, if a little pat), he heads off to achieve his big goal, and although its left somewhat ambiguous, it seems he makes a very good start. So, while this isn't quite a masterpiece, it's really, really good, easily one of the best graphic novels of the year, and it's so full of visual wit it will reward multiple readings.
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