By: David Mazzucchelli
Language: English
344 pages, color
Pantheon, 2009
ISBN: 978-0307377326
Comics are all about the power of icons, even comics striving for realism in the drawings. Many comics artists throughout the centuries have grasped this fundamental fact and used it to tell stories that reach out and touch their readers. Someone who has decided to try and take this truth to even higher levels of achievement and communication is the American master draughtsman and storyteller David Mazzucchelli.
Mazzucchelli has finally written and drawn a major graphic novel, something that many have been waiting for.
The story is if not simple then at least rather straight forward: a grouchy, onboxious and rather aloof architect hits rock bottom when his apartment is burned down in the initial scene of the book and we then follow his life both in real time and in flash-backs as it progresses towards a greater understanding of what his life is all about. This has been done before. What is captivating in this book is Mazzucchelli's complete grasp of the communicative potential of comics, the playfullness with which he uses the way images can not only illustrate but lead and indeed deepen the understanding of he narrative and his genuinly personal brush stroke and way of using color. This all meshes together into a totally unique reading experience.
We will run a short article/long review by British writer Paul Gravett in the forthcoming issue of Bild & Bubbla (just sent to the printer and will be shiping in about two weeks) so I will not talk at length about the book here, more than to say that this really is one of the very best graphic novels from the year 2009 and well worth the investment both in money and time, to buy and to read. And do buy it, as I recommend you to re-read this book several times.
I picked up Asterios Polyp yesterday and the first thing that hit me was that his house burned down on his 50th birthday. Anyone who is approaching that particular milestone is going to see this graphic novel in a different way simply from that particular fact.
ReplyDeleteReading through it (and it is just brilliantly thought out that it feels more like watching an avant garde movie sequence than a graphic novel) I felt the writers have really got a feel for the characters and the related subject matter. I won't write anything beyond this about the content because it definitely is a book worth DISCOVERING for one's own self - depending on who is reading it will I am sure alter the view or perspective of it.
Even just having gone through half of Mazzuchelli's work, it made me realize at least at a personal level how boring I have become following mainstream thought on the internet. So this was a refreshing read for me because it connected me back for the first time to the days when I used to buy comics as a kid.
That my parents decided that "I was too grown up for comics" by the age of 13 when we moved homes and therefore left all my comics behind is one thing - the fact that I know collectors would have purred at the editions I had actually brought many decades ago makes this the real story.
I could estimate now that I had easily $50,000 worth of comics that collectors today would pay without blinking - but that is life isn't it and so you can guess from that why I would be drawn to the Asterios Polyp character - that we don't know what we have until it is gone.
Other than that, I am so glad to have picked this up and more so that I got introduced to David Mazzuchelli's work. It has opened a door that used to be open in my life and such a re-opening is the best part of this experience, because for all of my talk of learning and development, it is what we have a sense for which is the real deal.
I certainly am glad I picked this book up, but it is a bit like that scene in Forrest Gump about life being a box of chocolates - well if this graphic novel is a chocolate, all I know is that it was a really good one. Not only did it return me to my roots as a comic buyer, but it introduced me to the graphic genius of modern artists.
This book proves that this genre is above all a work of art. Sure there may be creative people who may not like the content at a personal level but I can only speak for myself here - it was simply great.
[Em]