Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. He leaves the city and relocates to a small town in the American heartland. But what is this "escape" really about? As the story shifts from present to past, the pieces of Polyp's life come together and we meet Hana: a sweet, smart, first-generation Japanese American artist with whom he had made a blissful life. But now she's gone; what has happened to her? Mazzucchelli's extraordinarily imagined world of brilliantly conceived eccentrics, sharply observed social mores, and deftly depicted asides on everything from design theory to the nature of human perception becomes a masterpiece: a great American graphic novel.
by Pantheon Books
Published July, 2009 (Modern Age) by Pantheon Books and went on sale in 2009 for $29.95 USD. This issue contains 344 pages in Black & White, the current NM value is $29.95 USD.
UPC:
ISBN-10: 0307377326
ISBN-13: 9780307377326
David Mazzucchelli is well-known for his collaboration with Frank Miller on Batman Year One. This work went on to become one of the most influential Batman stories of the modern age - and incidentally, one of the more collectible comic books as well. Year One - it turns out - was to be Mazzucchelli's superhero Swan Song. The artist went on to create more personal works in Rubber Blanket and a few others.
Asterios Polyp is David's most ambitious project yet. It is a study of the loneliness and arrogance of the titular character. And so much more. Through dynamic narrative techniques this book explores the seeming duality of everything, the value of art, the stages of human growth and what it means to be an individual. Asterios Polyp is more than a story. It is meticulously constructed metaphor which the reader can spend hours untangling. Continue Reading »
