Asterios Polyp (Pantheon Graphic Library)

With clever storytelling, innovative and exciting artwork, intelligent and thought-provoking ideas, AP is one of the best books I've read in a long time. The ending is a real kicker. It's hard to believe that this is Mazzucchelli's first full-length work. Buy it now.

Extremely intelligent. Intellectual stuff from Hegel to Orpheus is referenced in this extremely well composed graphic novel. Very beautiful, very moving. This Oddyssean tale can be read again and again.

To call it a comic is very limited. To call it a novel too. Takes the best of both and combines it with great inspiration to give us this book.

Smart, classy, quirky. Nothing like I've read before. Love the colours, layouts and overall story. A must have for comic enthusiasts, I feel.

It's such a beautiful book, the drawings, the story ... everything is so well done and created ... it's inovative and smart ... ... just loved it, it took me ages to end it ... because i wanted to make the amazing experience of read and "taste" it last as long as i could, now that i've end it ... i already miss it ... ;) It's a must have Rui from Portugal

Brilliant theme, and extremely well drawn. I like water colour paintings and this whole book looks like a collection of watercolours.

I have bought this masterpiece for three of my friends. It's genuinely that good.

Put simply, this is a masterpiece. Outstanding multi-layered exploration of what it is to be human. Drawings are exquisite. Brilliant

I'll go more into the story below, but, really, this book is about exploring the comics form in a way you too-rarely see. Main character Asterios is rigid in his beliefs and is often drawn as a mannequin made of cylinders and cubes and the like; his ex, who we meet through flashbacks, is raw emotion and is often drawn as fast sketchy lines in red. The idea of sequential panels is often put aside to tell a bigger whole on a page (of two-page spread). Color has meaning. The shape of a panel often tells a whole story. The layout of a page (or panel), often featuring a polyptychs of a sort (not a coincidence per the character's name, I assure you), explains everything a character is thinking or feeling, with the words adding yet another dimension. The MANNER in which the story is told, and in which it unfolds, could NOT be done in any other medium. There are a LOT of comics, especially graphic novels, out there which are simply sequential panels (City of Glass, to which this has been compared, is just that); Asterios Polyp is more than an exploration of a man who has the realization he's not quite the good man he thought he was; it's an exploration of the comic book form, telling a story in a variety of ways through art and page, often using the page as part of the art. Those are rare things and should be embraced. I read the 2-star reviews and it seems the people who wrote those were expecting a completely different comic book. Fine. Then go buy one. One person states she heard this was a "philosophical" book and is upset that it doesn't detail much about the philosophers mentioned in it. Um...that's not the story. Another person states he didn't like the cartoony style -- then why buy the book? The art is viewable right on the cover. Another states everything here is stereotypical. Sure, the life of a brilliant-full-of-himself-tho'-really-a-good-person architect who by fate loses all of his worldly possessions and accidentally happens upon an understanding of his life -- gosh, I've read that a THOUSAND times. Sigh. The journey of this full-of-himself man, Asterios, is begun through an event beyond his control, an act of god. He ends up doing some self-exploration, and we go along with him as he, or the narrator (his dead/unborn twin brother), shows us what kind of man he is/was. He's actually a well-meaning, albeit full-of-himself sort, the kind of which most of us have met. He's smug and happy to stay in his comfort zone so, as such, he is unable to even see where he goes wrong. He's not a bad guy; just no one had ever pointed out his flaws to him. The narrator is a haunting figure who helps Asterios realize he DOES have control over some aspects of his life -- not all of them, but some. Ultimately this book is about a person going through loss, love, loss and trying to control his life, but the ultimate lesson is that there are only certain things we can actually control. I should also add: this is a BEAUTIFUL cloth hardcover book, with an engraving of the main character on the front and back, and a thick, slick dustcover -- the kind of binding and work you RARELY see anymore. That alone makes this book worth owning.

Fantastic. Loads of subtle visual touches and art jokes. I laughed and cried which is pretty rare reading a graphic novel. This is a touching story that could only be done in an illustrated format. Wonderful use of the medium and brilliantly executed.

A primeira coisa que você deve saber a respeito desse livro é: É uma das obras fundamentais dos quadrinhos. E a segunda coisa é: Não é uma obra fácil de ser digerida. Não sou nem eu que digo isso, Scott McCloud grande teorico dessa mídia, compartilha das mesmas palavras sobre o quadrinho. Numa primeira leitura, você provavelmente não vai pegar todas as referências, porque é provavelmente impossível. Você entenderá a história (ou não) e relendo pela segunda vez, você começará a perceber a metalinguagem utilizada, em como arte e quadrinho se mesclam e uma utiliza da outra para efeito narrativo. Numa terceira leitura, você provavelmente vai casar os dois elementos e fazer uma leitura definitiva, absorvendo tudo o que essa brilhante graphic novel tem a oferecer. Caso não acredite em mim, procure pelo nome do Scott McCloud e desta obra, há um artigo em que ele discorre sobre as diversas camadas presentes nesta obra. A edição é padrão Pantheon, capa dura de material reciclado, (até a sobrecapa possui relação com a estética do livro) tudo combinado e que conversa com a obra. Sensacional, 5 estrelas para a história e 5 para a edição.

Una novela gráfica con alma, divertida de leer, de ver y de pensar. De esas que cuando las terminas, regresas al inicio y vuelves a empezar (y en la cual siempre encuentras algo nuevo). Sin duda después de Maus la obra de literatura gráfica que más me ha impresionado.

not collector but nice to have it!!!