Thing is while he has won many competitions and awards during his career, he is a ‘paper architect’. Asterios spent his life as a tenured professor of architecture. We are treated to shot of the burning apartment with a room stacked with numbered VHS cassettes. Once he is safely outside on the street, he helplessly watches as his home is burnt down. Asterios races through his apartment to retrieve a watch and Swiss Army knife. Thunder strikes his apartment block and starts a fire. While listlessly lying in bed watching home movies on cassette tape, our protagonist is pushed over the edge –into an amazing journey of self-discover (and maybe redemption?). His New York apartment is a mess, he is a mess and the mortgage is overdue. When we meet Asterios he’s teetering on the edge of a cliff. Once a successful and admired university professor Asterios ‘escapes’ into the American heartland? Why? Read on to find out… What to Do When Your Life Goes Up in Flames… Literally

Slowly introducing us to the complex, conflicting yet fascinating charter that is Asterios.Įnter Mazzucchelli’s brilliant but eccentric story that takes side trips into morality, Greek myths and touches on a little bit of everything from the meaning of self, parallel dimensions to design theory. This award winning graphic novel is an exploration of duality.

Follow the odyssey of a middle-aged man as he confronts his flaws, failures and maybe… just maybe the will of the gods themselves. Asterios Polyp is the glorious return of legendary artist David Mazzucchelli.

Asterios polyp graphic novel