Asterios Ployp

Another comic I just completed is Asterios Polyp, written and illustrated by David Mazzucchelli. Feel free to read into the name, the author wants you to as there are several interestingly named characters throughout the book you'll run into. The book, named for its main character, is all about Asterios, his life, what shapes him, and what shapes us all. Asterios is a very successful "paper architect," meaning none of his designs have actually been built. We're introduced to him at his absolute lowest point when his apartment building is struck by lightning and he makes it out with only the clothes on his back and three items he couldn't leave without: an old watch, a Swiss Army knife, and a Zippo that's out of fluid. Asterios has a twin brother that dies in child birth who helps narrate from time to time and fill in pieces of his surviving brother's story.

The events of the book take place out of order and cover three periods of his life. It reads like a Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) movie elegantly weaving between time, plots, concepts and emotions and the art while appearing simple on the surface, is the absolute correct choice to tell the story. Characters are broken down into geometric shapes, colors, outlines, and are even between worlds at times all relative to what is going on. The story is one that presents and challenges concepts and ideas. Aside from Asterios' "I'm always right" self obsessed attitude, you'll get to know his artist wife on some level, you'll meet a bombastic theater director, a meat-and-potatoes car mechanic, a self proclaimed goddess, a revolutionary, and several other characters, each with something to say. To say the story is a beautiful mess is to disgrace it as every word and illustration is there for a reason. Not one of them feels as if it doesn't belong or only exists to fill the page, and I wouldn't change a pencil stroke.

Mazzucchelli's artwork also managed to surprise me in that he knows how to use white space as good as any advertising copyrighter. Characters are pushed to the side to create a sense of chlostrophobia or anxiety, they are isolated on the page, they are larger than life and as small as an ant all at once. There is a section of this book where Asterios is thinking about his wife that can bring tears to your eyes. There are portions that will make you laugh out loud such as Asterios' opinion of why men don't make noise during sex and things that will seriously make you think like how Mazzucchelli was not only able to suggest that memories are a recreation of an event, but illustrate the concept in such a way that the entire presentation brings perfect understanding of what he is trying to express. No, this book is not a beautiful mess. It is simply beautiful. I've not come across anything else like it. This is probably one of the beast works of art that I will ever read.

Grade A+

Meta Grade 100