Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
This novel was beautifully written and illustrated, exemplifying many of the pillars of a good comic asserted in Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. The language used was brief but not understated, using articulate language and dialogue in conjunction with the illustrations. Mazzucchelli’s great attention to detail is commendable, everything from the precise choice of language to color, and the technicality in drawing were a testament to the amount of time and thought that went into the creation of this work.
I really appreciated the multiple tools the author used to distinguish and merge characters. Each individual had a font and speech bubble uniquely personal to them. Asterios and Hana were depicted in their own color palette and drawing style throughout the novel. This aspect was used strategically to highlight tension in the story, as they were shown merging in love and dividing in anger, meeting and fleeting in thought and life course.
The cyclical storytelling was an interesting presentation of the narrative and furthered the allusion to the course of one’s life as with as the planet’s life cycle. The seemingly corresponding color schemes of the chapters furthered the division yet interconnectedness of each subsection.
I was not particularly drawn to many of the characters in the book, but I do not feel it hindered my appreciation for the story being unfolded. I took to the character of Hana, her understated kind-heartedness and patience a balance to Asterios’ cold self-serving manner. The characters were easy to imagine, fully embodied aspects of the narrative, regardless of the amount of character development attributed to each.
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