Week #11

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

     This week I mainly read Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. I was immediately fascinated by its color aesthetic and use of shapes, but moreover, what makes this this work interesting is its philosophical contents. The story and ideas in Asterios Polyp is complicated and I felt that I sometimes wasn’t able to grasp the ideas enough; however, that is probably a great thing about this comic. It requires me to reread in order to understand, and I will find more and more things I didn’t catch in the first reading. Also, the interpretation of this work will vary depending on each readers’ experience, age, and situation, since the ideas suggested in Asterios Polyp such as duality, identity, self, etc. can be significantly different for one person from another.

     My favorite part of this comic is the depiction of relationship between Asterios and Hana. While Hana is a great character (not just “an ordinary one” position), I feel that she also serves a role as a point of view of the readers. We often see the story in the main characters’ perspective, but it is different in Asterios Polyp. Though Asterios is a main character, it is hard to sympathize him for the most readers (in my opinion) due to his complexed ideas and personality (to sum up, most of us don’t think in the way he does.) Here, Hana speaks for us; at least for me, Hana feels the same or similar way as I do and her emotion/humaneness balance out the logical and difficult ideas in the comic. I like how David Mazzucchelli suggests Hana and Asterios’s distance by changing the depiction of Hana. When they are close, Hana is similarly depicted as Asterios, using clean lines and shapes. However, when Hana feels the distance from Asterios (e.g. when  Asterios tells her about the video camera, when she finally tells Asterios “what makes you think you’re always right?”), she is drawn by using pink etching lines without clean contour lines. It clearly shows that they are not able to understand each other and no longer compatible. While this comic is very philosophical, the depictions of their relationship are rather emotional; the montage of Hana’s daily routines (pg221-228) which Asterios is reminding alone is especially emotional for me.

     Other works I read in class were A History of Violence, Box Office Poison, and Milk and Cheese. Including Asterios Polyp, the common factor between these comics is that they all explores the main characters’ identity and their past and present, using flashback scenes.