Asterios Polyp (Pantheon Graphic Library)

Stunning! All I could think after reading Asterios Polyp for the first time was "what just happened to me?" This ground-breaking graphic novel achieves something I thought could not be done- it is completely original. Let's start with the cover- the artist's approach to the letters in the title of the book is so original that I couldn't stop from staring at the cover for ten minutes. Inside the cover, the end pages are beautiful drawings of flowers. This was just a taste of the painstaking detail the artist used to create not just a story, but a meditation on philosophy, the meaning of memory and time, and life itself.

This book feels at times deeply personal and autobiographical, yet at the same time universal. It asks not only the big questions, but the small, daily questions. What is a memory? What is self? What does time mean? Yet this is all wrapped in a fast-paced story of an eccentric man. The artist shifts drawing styles with amazing fluidity, at times building the story, at other times leading us off into strange directions. The complete interlock between art style and story and theme here is mind-blowing.

This one has my vote for Best Graphic Novel of 2009.

90% in the comic/ graphic novel market the books are a forgettable read where the creative team is churning out unremarkable reading experience. I've been anticipating a Mazzucchelli comic since 'Daredevil: Born Again' which permanently left a stamp in my life since high school. I can still recall how his images and visual storytelling evoke a haunting drama. I'll never forget feeling weightless and floating on air after the last chapter. Fast forward, present, today ... speechless. Asterios Polyp has become my Top 5 favorite graphic novel. Brilliant. The regrets, angst, loneliness, egocentric profile to mask an insecurity, decadence of knowledge and emotional resolution is packaged into one character. I cannot praise Asterios Polyp enough. The art alone is truly un-filmable (that's a compliment) and exercises the medium as a true artistic achievement. This is a must buy. A book that demands to be in your bookshelf.

An incredibly human and well-plotted tale that will invariably catch you off guard.
Read it, reread it, and read it again -- you will always find something new. The art in this book bleeds of skill, heart, and depth. Its characters, especially the highly-relatable and dimensional 'Sterio, will stay with you through your daily life.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in strong, unconventional storytelling filled with life lessons for young and for old.

Asterios Polyp is an architect, and the main character of this eponymous ontological examination - cum - graphic novel. The work is ambitious, but it fails on many levels.

It fails as a story and as philosophy.

I never felt the energy or any chemistry between the main character or any of his supporting characters. He is a cold architect and academic, most famous for his designs and not for the buildings because the buildings are never made. This duality between the real and the imagined is to keep up the continual reinforcement of the dichotomous world that Polyp exists in.

The most notable, and the most gimmick-like of these is that the book is nominally narrated by his stillborn twin as a shadow that continually follows him. Polyp is as much defined by the potentiality of the nothingness that is/was his dead brother. This part seems heavy-handed and fake. The life Polyp lives seems to be on the surfaces - he is a flaneur, an observer of his own existence. He records his life, but doesn't watch the tapes. He is the self-deconstructing dialectic. He is boring. His life of teaching and falling in love and getting married and divorced is shallow.

When, as so happens, his house burns down and he goes on a journey of self-discovery, I was reminded of Fight Club: A Novel more than anything else. When he discovers himself and just begins to reconcile his dual nature into one of a person of depth, the book ends with an ominous portent hanging over him. While the ending makes thematic sense, it felt to me a return to the shallows that works artistically but not as a story.

Because it does work artistically. The drawings of the characters and their speech help give them all depth except for Polyp. Even though I feel that this feeling is the `point' of the artist, it still is cold and distancing. The poly-stylistic thing works in a way I cannot fully describe, the best I can think of is as a euphonious visual cacophony.

I approached this book as a recent graduate of architecture school, as well as a huge fan of graphic novels. Asterios called to mind so perfectly the lofty insecurity of architectural (or any type, really) academia that several times I wondered if the novel was based on various professors I've known. You don't need a Master's degree to understand what he's saying, but sometimes a little bit of inside knowledge does help.

The visual style is striking as well, providing many insights into the aspects of the characters without having to come right out and say what they're thinking. We know when two people are in sync and when they've fallen apart. We know how people view the world without ever finding out their political affiliation. It makes for a lush, dense read that takes several glances over a single frame to fully comprehend.

The story is spoken of more eloquently by other reviewers than I; I confess I've forgotten much of my "Odyssey" and classical knowledge. But this is a story everyone can be drawn into; several times I found myself holding my breath hoping Asterios would do this or that, or avoid a temptation. For all of his faults (and there are many, because Asterios is almost as human as you or I) this is a character you grow to care about. You want to know what happens to him, and not just to finish the book.

I cant help feeling that the ending was too cute, too cliche and too...comic like, it left a bitter taste in my mouth to see (SPOILERS START HERE) a meteor heading for the home of Hana, the wife of the main character as they were reuniting (SPOILERS END HERE), it's not that I don't get the metaphor behind it or dislike a "sad" or unexpected ending, but the rest of the book felt real in spite or maybe because of the great design. It feels like I was making out with a hot chick but given a harsh slap when I blinked.

Asterios Polyp is an arrogant and selfish paper architect(none of his designs have been built) but when his apartment burns down he takes three things - his watch, his father's lighter and a swiss army knife. On the path to redemption and a more fullfilling life, he sheds the watch and lighter but holds on the knife; the one thing he has that connects him to his estranged wife. Mazzucchelli has crafted a rich examination of life. Most interesting is the way he uses different art styles to show how people see themselves and the world. A true masterpiece.

A fully engrossing, sometimes bizarre, sometimes touching story of one man’s journey through life. From blowhard intellectual to blue collar mechanic, we follow the life and love of one Mr. Asterios Polyp. Fascinating from beginning to end. The story is top-notch, and the artwork is brilliant! I rate this as the number one non-superhero graphic novel of all time.

Brilliant, visionary graphic novel from the fertile imagination of a comics legend. Perhaps best known for his work on Batman and Daredevil, David Mazzuchelli gives us a masterpiece tale of duality, fate, and the true meaning of hope. Beautiful words, beautiful pictures: one of the two or three greatest graphic novels that I have ever read...and that's coming from a forty-year devotee of the genre. A must-read work.

After reading Asterios Polyp I would have to agree with Ms. Robbins excellent review of this book, this is Mazzucchelli trying a bit too hard to craft a serious work, when perhaps crafting a good, cohesive, compelling, and interesting one would have served him better. If you want to read a Mazzuccheli drawn work that does succeed in being about higher issues of self, issues of humanism and existentialism, read PAUL AUSTER'S CITY OF GLASS... which is quite brilliant. But in that work he had a writer, Paul Karasik to help shape that Adaptation.

In ASTERIOS it's clearly Mazzucchelli trying to ape some of the themes and concepts of CITY OF GLASS, but they come across as just that, poor mimicry, that doesn't fit, or have any real place in the mismash of a story he's trying to tell. Pretension is a word that's bandied about a bit. And I think it's because it fits. There are people who think anything pseudo literary is deep, and praise it to be thought hip or intelligent, and like this work they are neither. You want deep in a GN, read CITY OF GLASS, read FROM HELL. ASTERIOS is a poor mix of two really great things, TONY TAKITANI and CITY OF GLASS, both of which tackle serious issues, while still being excellently and cohesively crafted AND entertaining. ASTERIOS is none of those things.

And have to say, as a fan of Mazzucchelli's art, I don't care for the art in this at all. Cartooning up his already minimalist style, not good.
In summation ASTERIOS POLYP may be a meaningful work... for those who embrace the superficial, others will be better served... looking elsewhere. At the very least rent it from your library before buying. Then if it does speak to you, come back here and buy it. If not, you're only out, the time it took you to read it.

Best of luck to you.

this is an amazing graphic novel the likes of which rarely comes along. it really knows what it's doing, playing with the fact that its narrative trades in drawings as well as words, allowing itself to be fanciful while alluding to a rarefied (and not so rarefied) history of visual representation. at times, it's like a meditation on principles of design, creative expression, and the artistic life. even still, it never loses track of the need to tell a good story about interesting characters in a rich setting.

this book deserves to win a lot of awards and a huge following!

David Mazzucchelli has simply crafted such a wonderful graphic novel and it has been such a joy to read these past two days. From the incredible cover design from his minimal but endearing color pallette, Mazzucchelli has created the graphic novel, that if it had an Opera book club sticker on it, would rocket the medium into new markets.

It's mature, funny, existential, and David's expertise on the subject matters he discusses throughout the book is also amazing.

If you love graphic novels, or want a good one to start with, one of the newest, is one of the best.

Here is a magnificent piece of « graphic novel », brilliantly « graphic » indeed : the story is told inside each page by curves, lines, colors, symbols, sights (and incidentally, those specific graphic signs : letters of the alphabet). Asterios Polyp is a real character, wich means he's only a way of looking, like anyone else, like you and me. Une "vue de l'esprit" like we say in french, see what I mean ? I wouldn't have even looked at this great book, had it been a mere « novel ». But, wow, what a « graphic novel » !

This graphic novel had several panels that I list among my favorite arrangements and techniques. Several pages of this graphic novel are emblematic of the reason Comics are an amazing medium that allow a creator to do things that can't be done anywhere else. If you are a designer, architect, fan of fiction, comics, etc, you will love this.

I'm a relatively new follower of the graphic novel literary genre, so perhaps a somewhat inexpert reviewer. I haven't followed David Mazzucchelli's work over the years or anything, but someone recommended this to me and I picked it up. And "Wow" is the right word for it. This GN takes you through the entire range of emotional responses that a really great text novel does. It's extremely engaging, and there's something, some little detail at least, that delights on just about every page. I also had the sense reading it that I need to read it again more closely, the way one should read such serious literature. Because there are deep literary resonances here. I heartily recommend it.

It is very difficult to describe this book in words. There is so much to take in, you really need to read it a few times to appreciate the attention to detail, and experience the book as a whole from cover to cover. Then you will need to read it a few more times, and depending on how educated you are, look up certain allusions that add even more depth to the story. This is a story for thinkers, lovers and artists. A true modern masterpiece.

If you like Batman: year one or Daredevil: Born Again you will be disappointed, David Mazzucchelli art is as different as Barry Smith was when he first started out, only Barry got better, while David is not the artist he once was. The story itself is entertaining, I read it cover to cover. The book itself is not made very well, the hardback is half covered with vinyl and the other half is naked, its just pressed carton, and the dust cover is too small, it doesn't fit. They did these two things just too be different, to look smart, I personally think it looks dumb. The paper they used is not a glossy stock but it's OK. On the art, it not bad, it just looks to lazy to be Mazzucchelli, it looks so different to what he use to be. Like I said before I did read it and it was not a tough read. 1 star for the quality of the book, 2 stars for art and 4 stars for script.

This is the most intelligent and literate graphic novel I have ever read, by a good margin. If you like thoughtful character driven literature along the lines of Somerset Maugham or Guy deMaupassant, and quality drawing, this is for you.

The finest and most intelligent graphic novel this decade. Mazzucchelli is now confirmed as one of the greats. Proof beyond a doubt that the language of comics is a unique and beautiful thing, and not something to be dismissed by the lazy. Anyone with an interest in the possibilities of the form should have this in their collection.

Interesting book....subtle on many different levels...my first purchase of a book of this type.... Having written a few young kids stories, I am always looking for new means of illustrating. I love the way this book visually gives the reader a springboard from which to bounce one's own perceptions and ideas.

So-so graphic novel with some interesting moments, but weakened, in the end, by philosophical ruminations which contribute to reader boredom. Will appeal primarily to some academic types. The art, however, is pretty good and even creative.