He has brought in the harvest with Asterios Polyp, which yields up a cornucopia of developments and devices that will unquestionably advance the communicative powers of the medium of comics as they are absorbed by his peers and students, as well as the generations of cartoonists to come. He set to work over a decade ago with the goal of bringing to fruition in a single graphic work the seeds of the abstract ideals he has long held for the medium of comics. Mazzucchelli has a command of the language of comics that is all his own. There is simply no disputing the formal qualities of this work. Metaphysical speculations in comics form combine with Mazzucchelli's own idiosyncracies, Eisnerian pathos, and a notable Japanese aesthetic, as well as explorations and deconstructions of the printing and production process that shows commonality with contemporaries Paul Hornschemeier (specifically The Three Paradoxes), Dash Shaw (particularly Bodyworld), and Frank Santoro (pretty much everything), all of which is woven together in a tale clearly inspired by classical Greek mythology, dramatics, and philosopohy that commands the reader's full attention, forcing perceptual and conceptual apparatuses into overdrive and demanding multiple readings. Talk about anticipation! Mazzucchelli has spent the last decade pondering the possibilities and potentials of the comics form and Asterios Polyp embodies his findings. And now here we are, over twenty years later with his most important work.

David Mazzucchelli's work with Frank Miller in the mid-80s - Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One - made him a mainstream comics superstar, but then he walked away from it all to pursue his own calling of an independent, more thoughtful form of comics and became a legend in the process. Over ten years in the making, Mazzucchelli's first ever solo graphic novel, is also his first major work since his 1994 graphic adaptation of Paul Auster's City of Glass, a trailblazing, highly influential work which put him at the forefront of the then nascent 'serious' graphic novel movement.

This is perhaps the longest awaited work in the history of comics (No? Let us know what, in your estimation, beats it.).

Asterios polyp de david mazzucchelli