Asterios Polyp

Right off the bat, I can tell you that I love love LOVE the artistic style of this comic and it captivated me from just the cover.  I feel that if a quote on quote “normal” person wanted to really see the world through an artist’s eyes, they need not look further than this book on the shelves.  I think the line work and color use in total are what give it the edge above the other competitors as one of the most beloved graphic novels.  Obviously, the credit for that success isn’t purely because of the artistry and the writing is pretty fantastic as well.  In fact, the text itself copies the interesting things the registers (or lack there of!) does throughout the novel to carry the narrative in a fun and interesting way.

I think my favorite thing about this particular artistic style is that everything is about the structure of the layout, which strengthens not only the narrative but also the character of the protagonist and that is an entirely new experience for me.  Polyp is an architecture artist purely focused on the design on said building on paper.  Therefore, the world of the comic is shown in a very structural yet unconventional way, for you can’t be a world renowned artist for doing what everyone else did.  His brother also EXPLAINS this to the viewer so that even the dullest person can understand how different people see the world in very different ways.  I think those pages were my favorite because it visually represented the challenge of people trying to meld their worlds with others when it is visibly obvious that it wouldn’t work.  I feel like that was the last step before every reader could relate to this work.

Speaking from an artist’s standpoint, I could also finally see what our instructor was talking about while comparing comics with animation.  Before, I could only kind of see it.  Yeah they are both kinds of graphic narrative that goes frame by frame, choosing “camera” angles for every panel to reinforce what the author wants the reader to be feeling.  However, there was a final piece missing that could have only been found in this novel.  The style of character drawing for this piece of work is almost an exact replica of what is favored by animators.  I would know, I am dating one.  There is a seamless line quality that I have always appreciated from animators’ drawing styles that perfectly displays the character’s movement, personality and expression without ever having to change a line.  Also, the play on shapes to build underlying character comes so naturally to them that I sometimes get jealous.  All of this I found in the art style of Asterios Polyp and it keeps making me want to come back for more.