Asterios Polyp has to be the most sophisticated and pleasant comic to read. This was my second time reading it and it asserted itself once again as a phenomenal work in my opinion. The strong and interesting characters like Asterios, Ursula, Stiff, the hippie musician guy and Hanna had all unique personalities. They were opinionated and the differing opinions created great dialogue and scenes. One example i'm thinking of is when Ursual and Asterios were talking about the cosmos and astrology. There is so much to talk about this book but another great thing about it is the art itself. Mazzucchelli created and clean, and simplified caricatured world that had graphic impact and used a limited palette. The subtle purples, yellows, and precise line work give the work a modern look that is suiting to the content.
The question that is asked by Ignazio (Asterios's dead twin brother) above brings up a really interesting idea. I found the way that Mazzucchelli handled this visually was genius. Its simple but yet delivers the idea of different people experiencing life subjectively and thus creating their own realities. Using different styles he uses this technique throughout the book. For example when Hana and Asterios are arguing over something Hana becomes red scratchy marks while Asterios is portrayed as cylindrical and rectangular prisms. Also when they flashback to when they first met in the party Mazzucchelli uses this technique again to differentiate all the different people in the party.
No comments:
Post a Comment