Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

     The book is interesting both visually and story-wise. I was really impressed by the unique style the author used throughout the book. The style of art changes from time to time, each time fitting into the story nice and smoothly. Small things such as the color of the panels, shape of the bubbles, even the text varies from person to person. His creative ideas are not only carried out by the story, but it's also embedded in the art itself. I think of this piece of work as "design" over a illustrated narrative. Due to the fact, the art probably told me much more than the text did.

     Asterios Polyp, a middle age man who finally stepped on a journey to self-discovery after he had lost everything. He was particularly designed with architectural proportional lines and shapes, just like his personality. Most of the time Asterios is drawn in a profile view, his face is perfectly symmetrical as well. It's surprising to know that his face is exactly the same shape as his back head, forming an axe shape. I believe the author did this on purpose to emphasis on the existence of Asterios's twin brother, Ignazio. On the other hand, Hana who's completely different from her husband, was illustrated with sketchy hatching lines that represent her sensitive nature. She is also more round and less angular.

     Asterios's cool, clean and perfectly drawn lines versus Hana's warm, messy, but complex lines, the collision between the two different personality is like a chemical reaction. Their lines mixed into each other, Hana gets some of Aterios blue structural shapes and Asterios gets some of Hana's sketchy marks. At times when they are in argument, they will go back to their own form again. There's no doubt that the visual representation of the characters are the most unique element throughout the entire book. Not only the main character has their own style that's unique to their personality  so does the others. The massive amount of detail easily takes away my attention, everything has a meaning. It will take days to explore the whole.