Asterios Polyp Preview Images

Comics scholar Paul Gravett posts the first public images from David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp as part of his 2009 publishing preview. “This story pulls you in from the word go,” writes Gravett, who proceeds to offer a short synopsis of the book’s opening sequence. “I’ll be returning to this and giving a detailed Early Bird Review on this site soon.” As previously reported, Mazzucchelli’s graphic novel is due in June 2009 from Pantheon Books.

Asterios Polyp Gets New Pub Date

Previously reported publication information for David Mazzucchelli’s long-awaited graphic novel Asterios Polyp indicated a February 2009 release for the book. Pantheon’s online information about that book has since been updated to indicate a June 2, 2009 publication date. According to Amazon.com, the book will be a 344-page hardcover.

Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp Described

Pantheon Books has posted a promotional description of and publishing information for David Mazzucchelli’s forthcoming graphic novel Asterios Polyp to its website. The book, which has a February 3, 2009 publication date, is described as follows:

Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, meagerly successful architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is wholly upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. In a tenacious daze, he leaves the city and relocates to a small town in the American heartland. But what is this “escape” really about?

As the story unfolds, moving between the present and the past, we begin to understand this confounding yet fascinating character, and how he’s gotten to where he is. And isn’t. And we meet Hana: a sweet, smart, first-generation Japanese American artist with whom he had made a blissful life. But now she’s gone. Did Asterios do something to drive her away? What has happened to her? Is she even alive? All the questions will be answered, eventually.

In the meantime, we are enthralled by Mazzucchelli’s extraordinarily imagined world of brilliantly conceived eccentrics, sharply observed social mores, and deftly depicted asides on everything from design theory to the nature of human perception.

Asterios Polyp is David Mazzucchelli’s masterpiece: a great American graphic novel.