Results tagged “Asterios Polyp”

Watch a rare video of David Mazzucchelli, author of the “haunting and beautiful” (Los Angeles Times) Asterios Polyp, as he discusses his writing process and inspiration for the graphic novel that has the world buzzing.

You will have just 2 chances to meet David and hear him talk about his new graphic novel, ASTERIOS POLYP:

TONIGHT:
Thursday, July 16—NYC
7:00 pm — Event at MoCCA with Dan Nadel. Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, 594 Broadway, Suite 401.

Wednesday, August 19—NYC:
12:30 pm — Graphic Novels and Comics from Every Angle panel. Featuring Chip Kidd, David Mazzucchelli and two more TBD. Moderator: Danny Fingeroth. Bryant Park Reading Room, 42nd Street, between 5th and 6th . Rain Venue: Library of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, 20 West 44th Street (between 5th & 6th Avenue).

The rave reviews continue to pour in:

“So … we can all stop reading comics now, because David Mazzucchelli’s crafted the ultimate comic book statement. Just take everything on your reading pile right now and chuck it out. Asterios Polyp is the new standard bearer. Mazzucchelli has somehow managed to jam just about everything great about comics into 340 pages of humanity, soul-searching, graphic design, philosophy and humor.” ~ News-a-rama

“Asterios Polyp is crammed with big ideas and classical allusions (in fever dreams, Asterios is imagined as both Odysseus and Orpheus), but the book never feels overstuffed. Mazzucchelli’s masterwork is by no means an easy read - there is so much to process here, the mind verily reels - but it is a transcendent one.” ~ Austin Chronicle

“As Polyp struggles toward reconciliation and redemption, his backstory is gradually revealed, and Mazzucchelli employs every artistic tool in his well-outfitted kit to illuminate his quest for self-knowledge. It’s a remarkable, bravura achievement - funny, harrowing and thought-provoking.” ~San Francisco Chronicle

“The amount that Mazzucchelli hurls at his protagonist—and, by proxy, his readers—is staggering. What’s even more impressive in the frequency with which his trials and experiments succeed. Asterios Polyp is the work of a veteran artist firing on all cylinders, who, despite having worked his way through the sequential art ringer for a few decades now, has managed to craft something remarkably fresh. Something that is sure to be borrowed from the libraries of plenty of self-appointed graphic novel ambassadors.” ~ Daily Cross Hatch

Below is an excerpt from the Comic Books Resources review of ASTERIOS POLYP. To read the full review, click here.

The “about the author” blurb on the inside back cover of “Asterios Polyp” says only this: “David Mazzucchelli has been making comics his whole life. This is his first graphic novel.” That last sentence seems wrong, doesn’t it? How can this be his first graphic novel if many of us — most of us — have volumes on our shelves with his name along the spine? Though originally serialized, “Daredevil: Born Again” is surely a graphic novel. So is “Batman: Year One.” They may be genre graphic novels, but that doesn’t mean they should be disqualified.
Yet, those two collaborations with Frank Miller are decidedly different than what we get in “Asterios Polyp.” And if the “about the author” blurb was written by Mazzucchelli himself, which is highly likely, than it’s telling that he would boldly differentiate between what he’s done in the past, “making comics,” and this hardcover “graphic novel.” But “Asterios Polyp” is different, and as Mazzucchelli’s first major solo project, it deserves to be treated differently.

It is, undoubtedly, a major work of graphic narrative. A true graphic novel in a way that so few comics-with-spines really are.

I don’t want to get into the old debates about the inaccuracy of the term “graphic novel,” because everyone knows that it’s used to mean anything from a thick collection of “X-Force” comics to “Maus” I and II. But if “graphic novel,” as a concept, bears any resemblance to the idea of a literary novel, then very few would actually qualify. If we exclude the graphic memoirs, what are we left with for great true graphic novels? Graphic novels that don’t rest comfortably inside the confines of “genre fiction”? “Jimmy Corrigan”? “Bottomless Belly Button”? “Stuck Rubber Baby”? It’s a small list indeed.

“Asterios Polyp” deserves a spot on that list, and after reading it a second time, I’m convinced that no matter how you define the term “graphic novel,” Mazzucchelli’s first graphic novel is one of the great comics of all time.

To order a copy of ASTERIOS POLYP, click here.

Check out the 6/10 issue of Entertainment Weekly, in which David Mazzucchelli’s new graphic novel ASTERIOS POLYP receives a rave review. Here’s a taste:

“When we first meet the brilliant and bullheaded professor Asterios, just before his New York City apartment is destroyed by fire, he’s glumly watching sex tapes of himself and his ex-wife. He flees the building and heads out of town as flashbacks show him, 20 years earlier, blithely tossing off obnoxious cocktail-party bons mots and sleeping with students. His youthful self’s slicked-back hair and ever-present smirk recall one of Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy villains, and the stuffy middlebrow conversations that swirl around him bring to mind Woody Allen’s favorite targets. …Elegant, deceptively simple line work and nearly subliminal color symbolism make everything go down like candy. The narrative comes back to earth for a profoundly satisfying climax, but you’ll want to keep turning pages — all the way back to the beginning, for another read.”

My personal favorite quote from the review: “it’s as if John Updike had discovered a bag of art supplies and LSD.”

Go Asterios (and David)!