June 23, 2009

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.