Asterios Polyp

Week eleven: comics as contemporary literature

Asterios Polyp 

by David Mazzucchelli

This 2009 graphic novel by American cartoonist David Mazzucchelli immediately caught my attention with its bold colors and style. Some pages featured very visually interesting layouts that differ from the usual format of comics, which includes many of the ones that we have been reading in this class. The story revolves around a man named Asterios Polyp, who is an architect and a college professor from New York. As seen in the art as well as the story itself, this graphic novel "explores the idea of duality," which I find to be very fascinating. 

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