Contemporary Comics

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This week I read, My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris and Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. My Favorite thing is Monsters takes the form of a girl's drawings in her journal. They are very detailed and rendered in ballpoint pen. The comic does not really follow the comic book format. There are long paragraphs of narration, while the detailed visuals give us insight into her mind. She caricatures herself as a little monster as well. The organization of the comic is like a scrapbook, which makes it feel like a stream of consciousness, organic flow of doodles. On one hand this makes the comic feel personal, like we are looking into her mind, on the other hand, the story is hard to follow and the main character feels like an unreliable narrator. As her narratives are riddled with fantastical creatures, and the story is only told from her perspective. 
Asterios Polyp had a very graphic and simplistic style that added to the appeal of the comic. Mazzucchelli utilized a limited pallet of pastel purple and yellows. This gave the story a carefree, slice of life feel to it. The story follows an architecture professor who teaches in Ithaca. He is middle aged, and he lives a mediocre life.  He meets a half Japanese, half German girl named Hana, whom he falls in love with and marries eventually. The story is told by his stillborn twin brother. It has flashbacks to the past, and has a heavy use of metaphors.  The story explores deep, conceptual ideas through this character's reflections, and profound understandings of abstract ideas.

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