Week #11: Comics as Contemporary Literature

Asterios Polyp, by David Mazzucchelli, has an interesting play on how characters and moods are represented in comics. Up until now, I've seen moods were drawn differently, by contrast, colour or how the line weight of ink showed. But in Asterios Polyp, the mood, the environment and characteristic of characters bleed to the technicality of each panel.

Even the narrator, his dead twin, is not a conventional narrator. He's sort of observing his brother's struggles of trauma and how he wishes he would overcome them.

The graphic novel by itself is highly stylised, almost geometrical in appearance.

The main character is proper and always "right". He is a control-and-clean-freak. You can see by his design he is some sort of posh character.

A great example of character portrayal is the background complements said character. He is very precise and successful, knowledgeable by comparing myths to his own life, and constantly critical about others.

It's not just a non-sequitur because it is accompanied by a sort of "profile picture" of the character that explains very well what we are dealing with and who we are going to follow throughout the story.

With other characters, it is the same. It shows the contrast in demeanour. Cold and strict versus organic and warm. It's an interesting approach how consistent the author is in showing how different his portrayal can become but still make sense in the storytelling. It's not simple complementary. The art tells the story as well as the words on the page. 

Their speech bubbles, their character design, their backgrounds and the panel shots all show this portrayal. As the story progressed, we see a slight change in the main character's emotions by how he is drawn. He goes through a series of catharsis because of his relationship with Daisy. He is distant and proud, so he couldn't ever be wrong or lenient.

At one point, he loses Daisy to his arrogance, and he parallels his life to the myth of Orpheus. He needed to do one thing, and because his temptation got the best of him, he lost her. His line work also changed, it became erratic just like his control on his emotions.

Overall, this graphic novel taught me you can be consistent if you know why you do the changes and break the mold of comic art. The portrayal of characters isn't mere whim, but an aesthetic with a purpose. I would definitely apply this to my graphic novel.