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Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli - Worth the 16-Year Wait!

Asterios Polyp and Rubber Blanket by David Mazzucchelli
David Mazzucchelli is one of my favorite cartoonists from the late-eighties and early nineties, but he seemed to drop off the face of the Earth after creating three issues of his “Rubber Blanket” comic, and adapting Paul Auster’s City of Glass. Finally... 

...after sixteen years
of hoping and waiting,
he has released his first new original book since 1993's Rubber Blanket #3 --  Asterios Polyp
is David Mazzucchelli’s new full-color 344-page magnum opus…

definitely worth waiting for!
image
I just spent the weekend reading this marvelous and engaging and challenging and inspiring graphic novel. It’s huge, sprawling, lovely, multi-layered, melancholy, beautiful…can you tell I loved it?
I was sad that I finished it, but I will probably start from the beginning again very soon.

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
I’m not going to attempt to describe the plot or characters…you’ll want to discover all that for yourself. Anyway. this gorgeous book is published by Pantheon Books, so it should be available at regular bookstores or better comic shops. If you can't find it there, you can always find it (at a discount) at Amazon.com. ENJOY!
And if you've already read it, I'd love to chat
about it through the comments section below.

4 comments:

David Martingale said...

Wow, what a glowing review! I guess I'll have to check this one out. Too bad there's no "see inside" option on the Amazon page.

I had no idea you were into new-fangled-type comics. I'm happy to see that you haven't succumbed to the Ludditism that seems to plague much of the cartoon-o-sphere!

Sherm said...

Hi David...yeah, I've been a big indie-comic freak for many years...I used to buy and read just about every oddball black-and-white comic I could get my hands on. Peter Bagge's Neat Stuff, Eightball, Stickboy, Sof' Boy, Kochalka, Crumb, Spain, Kim Deitch, Jeffrey Brown, Mark Martin, Jim Woodring...ahhh, the '90's. Not as much really good indies these days. Too many Clowes and Ware clones. Great...now I sound like an old crank.

David Martingale said...

Ever check out the Inkstuds site Sherm? They have a huge archive of audio interviews with indie comics artists. A lot of the dudes you mentioned are featured.

Sherm said...

David -- WOW! How did I not know about this Inkstuds website before? I just downloaded the James Kochalka interview, and I'm sure to spend a lotta time exploring this great spot! Thanks!