Asterios Polyp + Ghost World

This week I read Asterios Polyp and re-read Ghost World, which ended up being a worthwhile refresher.

Asterios Polyp was something I had been meaning to read for a while, so I'm glad I finally had a chance to get to it. I really enjoyed the way that the storyline moved. Mostly I was interested in Asterios' personal growth throughout the story, and how he completely changes once his life is humbled. The other characters that associated with him throughout the story were a lot like him; very intelligent, almost to a fault at times, and always trying to impress other people. I feel this gets most exemplified when he's forced to associate with the theater director. This in turn makes his issues with his Hana become much more apparent. Another one of the more interesting struggles he goes through is with his stillborn brother Ignazio, someone who he actually meets with throughout the story in dream states. I feel that this was a great way for Asterios to start looking at his own life. Although the circumstances for his sudden change were unfortunate, it was more beneficial to him in the end, including the rekindling of his relationship with Hana. With the art style, Mazzucchelli primarily used color as his way of changing the scene/mood. Most notable for me was when he meets Hana, and it shifts into her personal back story and away from the cooler-toned theme of the party.

Although I have read Ghost World before, it was good for me to go back since my more recent experiences with it have been the movie adaptation. For that reason I do find it most interesting to see how well the comic translated into the movie form. Enid especially I feel is a character that changed quite a bit in the translation. Although she still is very cynical in both, I feel that her aggression comes out more in the comic book. Rather, her personality seems a lot stronger, and the way she reacts to Becky seems a lot less tolerant. However, what I find to be the most interesting is the relationship between Enid and Becky. Primarily, the attachment of Becky when the reality of Enid moving to college comes to light. Although they are just leaving high school, it's an interesting view of how distance, or at least, moving away from home can affect even friendly relationships as is such in their case. Albeit they jokingly discuss the idea of being lesbians together, their platonic relationship is something that is highlighted throughout the story as something much stronger than what we might see as normal bonds. I feel this is one of the more important messages brought up in this story.

--David