Asterious Polyp

This was an excellent read. The style, style changes, and story merged together to be an exciting journey through the crisis of one man's life. The narrator was there with us the entire time. Not an active participant in the story, though he definitely makes his appearance.

I felt this really was a superb example of contemporary culture. It shows the apathy and inexperience that has overtaken the American mindset. A man, who is smart... even a genius perhaps, who can't figure out what to do with his life and more importantly, doesn't know how to save the love of his life. His house catches on fire and he's forced to flee... so he just wanders. The characters he meets in his travels manage to break him free of his loneliness and remind him of the important things. We see his life before, after, and during the break and it speaks deeply of how many people approach life and love, and the consequences of it.

The normal style for the book allows for supremely expressive and identifiable body types and faces, well, more than a realistic style would. The characters are defined by their line style, with Asterious Polyp being hard lines and sharp, for the most part (he softens towards the end) while Hana, his love, is all sensuous soft lines. The art of each character tells you a great deal about them.

Then the style changes, becoming very abstract and through text and image, defining of emotions. Hana feels overpowered by Asterious' ego and indifference, the imagery shows her as this soft, breaking figure in a world of harsh geometry. The idea of karma out of balance or unjust fate was prevalent through the book, as this egotist defines the world around himself in his own terms, only to find a woman that changes all that, and due to his ego, he loses her. Then his entire life goes to pot, losing or giving away his possessions and eventually losing an eye, before he finally gains enough humility to find his love once more.

The ending, though quite punctual and witty, was very unexpected. While it alluded to an earlier portion of the comic, it seemed out of place and distinctly slapstick (albeit, slapstick on a planetary scale).