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Pantheon

Asterios Polyp (Pantheon Graphic Library)

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Description

The triumphant return of one of comics’ greatest talents, with an engrossing story of one man’s search for love, meaning, sanity, and perfect architectural proportions. An epic story long awaited, and well worth the wait. Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, meagerly successful architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is wholly upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. In a tenacious daze, he leaves the city and relocates to a small town in the American heartland. But what is this “escape” really about? As the story unfolds, moving between the present and the past, we begin to understand this confounding yet fascinating character, and how he’s gotten to where he is. And isn’t. 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. Did Asterios do something to drive her away? What has happened to her? Is she even alive? All the questions will be answered, eventually. In the meantime, we are enthralled by 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. Asterios Polyp is David Mazzucchelli’s masterpiece: a great American graphic novel. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pantheon


Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 7, 2009


Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 344 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0307377326


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 26


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.66 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.19 x 1.26 x 10.55 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #80,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #130 in Romance Graphic Novels (Books) #131 in Literary Graphic Novels (Books) #277 in Mystery Graphic Novels


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • An Instant Classic that Scores on Every Level
I always thought that the Eisner award for best letterer was ridiculous. I mean who in the world cares about the lettering. The 2009 award went to David Mazzucchelli and this is the first time I have ever seen lettering that actually impressed me with each character getting a different style to reflect their personalities. In a sense the lettering is symbolic of just how much thought and effort was put into his book. Oh, and Mazzucchelli also won best writer/artist and best new graphic album AND three Harvey awards but who's counting. Mazzucchelli is one of those few artists like Jack Kirby and Keith Giffen who can do it all and excel at everything. Drawing, Inking, Writing, Plotting, Lettering; did he also do the binding? This is an amazing achievement and fully deserving of the accolades it received. The story opens at THE big turning point in the life of Asterios Polyp on the day of his fiftieth birthday. After the existence he knew literally burns to the ground he embarks on a quest to find a new life and indeed there is a dramatic transformation from the old Asterios, whom we are introduced to throughout the book in flashbacks, and his current humbled self. Previously Asterios had been an architect of some renown who never got a single one of his designs ever built. Despite his lack of tangible success Asterios is filled with a self confidence exceeding his achievements and supports himself as a brutal design instructor who has no qualms about giving the most blunt criticism possible to his hapless students. When Asterios begins dating Hana, a Japanese/German art student, he gives her the attention and spotlight she desperately craves but his own inflated ego and self absorption drives a ruinous wedge between them. The relationship between Asterios and Hana is the centerpiece of the story but after the fire Asterios embarks on a lonely journey that sees him working as an auto mechanic and living in a much more urbane setting than the cosmopolitan world of art and architecture he enjoyed in the past. I LOVED this book. It is so thoughtful and so genuine. It is clear that David Mazzucchelli wrote and drew this with a tremendous amount of care and sincerity. Everything and I mean everything from the dialogue to the style of art to the colors used to the naming of characters and of course even to the lettering is well thought out. It has a somewhat retro feel to it as if it were produced in the 1950's with very basic designs and only a handful of colors including a few shades of purple, blue, red and yellow and zero shading. Most frames stick with at most three colors on a white background. Like the lettering the colors are used to reflect the personality of characters and will even change based on their emotions. Again, I cannot stress enough just how much detail went into every aspect of the book. You'll feel like you know the characters because Mazzucchelli gives them such dimensional depth. I read this book cover to cover to my wife and she was riveted. This was one of those books I couldn't wait to finish and once it was done I was sad that it was over. There is also a sub plot about his twin brother Ignazio who died at childbirth. In fact the story is told by Ignazio and is infused with a ton of deep thoughts and philosophy about the world and design, the nature of being and the exploration of the road not traveled including the alternative world where Asterios dies and Ignazio lives. This book immediately makes it near the top of the list of graphic novels I have ever read and I HIGHLY recommend it. Seriously, buy it immediately. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2010 by David Swan
    • Brilliant graphic novel!
Everything about this graphic novel is fantastic. The use of color and line are both sparing and clever, and everything is drawn with great intention, echoing the fact that the two main characters are professors of architecture and sculpture. The story is told with a serious of flashbacks, and even minor visual details come back and recur later. This book really does create a new genre of literature; although the story would make an acceptable (if not slightly boring) plain-text novel about the eccentric life of an academic/intellectual, casting it as a graphic novel elevates it to something much, much more. So many elements of the story are enhanced by the use of drawing... it's hard to describe exactly how it happens, but somehow the fusion of text and art ends up being greater than the sum of the parts. I love the fact that both of the main characters are university professors -- there are plenty of jabs at academia, and as college faculty member myself, I resonated with Asterios's own (overly?) analytical experience with and approach to romance. Asterios's character flaws made me smile sometimes with shared humor, once or twice with schadenfreude, and a few times with grim recognition. Add to this layers of symbolism, double-meanings, karmic coincidences, and lovable side-characters, and overall this is a surprisingly brilliant book. Don't let the large (350) page count deter you -- with such sparse text, it goes very fast. Overall, this is the best "serious" (non-fantasy, non-scifi) fiction I have read in the past year, if not past 5 or 10 years. If you've never read a "serious" graphic novel before, definitely read this one as an example of the best of the genre. I originally read my local library's copy, but I bought myself one of my own just so I can return to it and reread it periodically in the future. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2011 by Keyboard Lover
    • Asterios Polyp- An Epic Twisty Pretzel of Emotion and Idea
This book will get your head swimming; not only with the plot, but also with all sorts of ideas from the meaning of success to dualism. The core of the plot is derived almost straight from the standard love story; boy meets girl, they fall in love, there is conflict and the reader hopes for resolution. Asterios Polyp thrives on this classic, yet it becomes much, much more than that. The love felt between the Asterios and his polar opposite of a wife Hana is not complicated in the way Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy feelings toward each other were. It is a quite simple and apparent love, which is conflicted when Hana's wholesome good heart can no longer bear Asterios's poisonous habits and inclinations. While the plot revolves around this relationship, it also follows its bizarre main character's life from birth on to the gallows of his old age. Although not in chronological order, the major events that have shaped Asterios's life are depicted in splendid shades of magenta, cyan, purple and gold. The graphics show not only the physicality of the character, but also the emotion felt in each scene with its ever changing style and clever symbolism. The instances in which the story diverges and a tangent is explored are the moments in this book that keep you on your toes, One minute think you are reading about the life of a pitiful old man, and the next you are submerged in a story of greek gods or design ideology. In the end, you will be confused, dumbfounded, astonished and feel the urge to read this book over and over again. I recommend you to go ahead and wrap your head around this incredibly intriguing pretzel of a story. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2010 by Clara Frances Gilbert

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