Asterios Polyp- By David Mazzuchelli

Asterios Polyp is story of a man, trying to pick his life back up after losing basically everything. The story is told in the present day but with flashbacks of to his past, showing the prime of his life and also his downfall. What immediately struck me was the art style: simple color palette, mostly flat with gradients. Things at times felt collaged together, line work mixed with no line art or different art styles completely. This was especially utilized when different characters met, like when Asterios met Hana. Hana was pink in a complex crosshatched style, while Asterios was a drawn with clean blue lines and curves It was interesting to see their styles combine as they got to know each other, with Asterios’s blue lines serving as the structure and Hana’s lines as the rendering. The styles felt very representation of the characters and it was interesting that when they would argue they would differ in styles again. This means of separating characters also went as far as the speech bubbles. Different characters has different fonts, Asterios was all caps, while Hana was lowercase. Asterios’ mother was cursive and his father was in a Greek style. These details were small but they had a huge impact on how carefully crafted the story seemed. All of these details really drive home the theme of duality as well as form and function. The coupled characters were all so different from each there and yet they still worked together.

The story was well thought out and thought provoking. The “narrator” questioned or perception of reality and in a comic like this that had a huge effect. It made it clear that this was not just drawn this way to separate characters and their personalities but to explain that this is either how they perceive themselves or how other perceive them. It was not just a style it was a conscious, careful choice by the author.  And the ending wrapped the whole story up, asking the audience that at the end of the day, how much of our existence is really up to us.