Asterios Polyp

Asterios Polyp is an interesting graphic novel that explores the mind of a straight-laced middle-aged man and his relationship with his freer wife. Visually, the novel is stunning. Most graphic novels I’ve seen are done in black and white or full color. Asterios Polyp has a limited color palette that makes use of mostly blue, pink, violet, and yellow.  There is no green; I wonder if it’s because green represents nature and is considered to be a creative color, but Asterios is emotes little and is not creative in regards to his views on life. It could also just be the author’s aesthetic choice. I think it’s cool how the speech bubble shapes and dialogue fonts different based on the characters’ personalities. Asterios is stiff, so his bubbles and font are angular. His wife is artistic and kind, so her bubbles and font are rounded. You can tell who is speaking just by looking at their dialogue.

The novel’s story is not linear. It jumps several times from Asterios’s past with his wife to the present after his apartment catches on fire. At least for me, the story wasn’t very interesting or compelling since it basically just chronicled the central character’s life and the tone stayed very consistent all throughout the book; there weren’t really dramatic moments or anything because Asterios is not a dramatic character. Asterios’s twin brother narrates Asterios’s thoughts and views on life presented in a very scholarly, matter-of-fact way, showing that Asterios doesn’t see his opinions as opionions but as facts and can’t understand why others believe differently. 

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