Perspective is a bit like a pair of perpetually-smudged glasses on the nose of an otherwise legally blind man: on the one hand, it is impossible for the man to see without them; on the other hand, in seeing through them he will never quite understand the world as it actually is. Despite the flaws inherent within an individual’s perspective, it is all too common for humans to claim that their system for understanding the world is complete and correct—and in doing so, utterly discount and belittle the insights that could have been found in listening to the perspectives of others. In the graphic novel Asterios Polyp, writer-artist David Mazzucchelli exposes the limitations in the perspectives of both his characters and his audience through his literary-visual technique.  

David Mazzucchelli, born in September of 1960, is a comics writer and illustrator known for his work in both mainstream and art comics. He began drawing professionally in the early eighties and eventually teamed up with Frank Miller, who had recently become famous through his work on the graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Their collaboration resulted in critically acclaimed works such as Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One . The success of this run gave Mazzucchelli enough clout to begin his own work outside of the comic conglomerates, starting with Rubber Blanket, a three-part alternative comics anthology. “Near Miss,” the first comic in volume one of Rubber Blanket, features a character who would later play a minor role in Asterios Polyp.

Having created both “in-house” comics and alternative art comics, Mazzucchelli had a rich history in semiotics, literary tropes, and medium-awareness to pull from when he created Asterios Polyp. Mazzucchelli worked on the novel for roughly a decade, the equivalent of spending nearly eleven days on each page. 
Mazzucchelli’s intentionality and eye for detail makes it is possible to make definitive claims based on every aspect of the novel not only in terms of the literary style, but also in terms of his visual style; hence, the literary-visual technique. Everything has meaning in a graphic novel, from phrasing to paneling, and this is especially true for Mazzucchelli’s work.

Artistic style as a metaphor for perspective pervades Asterios Polyp. The novel has no chapter titles or page numbers, but rather is divided into twenty-two segments by a single panel vignette that gives some hint or introduction to the theme presented in each section. One such tableau is a panel of sixteen apples laid out on a four-by-four grid, each drawn in a distinctive artistic style. This sketch is the first explicit reference to perspective in the novel. The panel of apples is meant to mirror the many different perspectives people may have—in fact, Mazzucchelli makes this abundantly clear on the following page by using the same system for a crowd of people that are all stylistically unique.  

Mazzucchelli draws the speech bubbles for Asterios Polyp—the eponymous main character—and Hana Sonnenschein—his fiancé, wife, and then ex-wife—using very distinct styles.
Asterios’s design suggests someone who is confident and sure of himself; the all-caps case is imposing and strict, while the words fill the space with precision because of the even cap-height. In the meantime, Hana’s design communicates a much gentler tone; the lowercase seems to indicate a softer voice while the curved line suggests movement and warmth. Other characters in the book also have specific styles, such as Kalvin Kohoutek, a composer whose dialogue balloons are formed by braces. In musical notation, braces are used to indicate two or more lines of music that are played simultaneously—an idea key to Kohoutek’s work.
