Angles, Curves, and Symmetry
The highly visual nature of the story telling of Asterios Polyp lends well to the use of certain artistic or design elements used to convey specific behaviors, ideas, or emotions to the reader. The author-illustrator of the novel makes full use of this in the way he draws the characters in the novel, particularly the titular Asterios and his wife Hana. Asterios, being a hard, arrogant character who is very vocal about his pointed opinions about nearly everything in life, is drawn using straight lines and hard angles. His face is drawn with his nose high up on his face—a nod to his Grecian heritage—but more used to convey his condescension. His eyes are drawn to be virtually non-existent as if he were permanently squinting; his lack of clearly visible eyes. Hana, being a gentle, sensitive character who is constantly concerned about how others would feel, is drawn using gentle curves. She is also drawn with large, expressive eyes, denoting her ease and willingness to show emotions.
Colors and Strokes
Colors are also used to convey specific behaviors, ideas, or emotions to the reader, once more focusing on the eponymous Asterios Polyp and his wife Hana. Asterios, being a cold, aloof character is drawn using blue lines. This is also a reference to his background as an architect, a nod to blueprint diagrams. When he starts to wax technical about architecture the artist also starts to draw him using three-dimensional polygons as a visual representation that he is starting to become more mechanical and less human. Hana on the other hand is drawn with red lines, as she is a warm, emotional character. When she begins to become passionate about matters very close to her heart such as Asterios’ shoddy treatment of her or her art, the artist begins to draw her with rough sketch lines, a nod to freehand drawings of street artists and portrait sketchers. Interestingly, when these two characters are at peace with one another or in agreement they are drawn using purple lines—a combination of their color schemes.
Light and Shadow
Light and shadow are also frequently used images in the graphic novel, again used as a medium to convey or heighten emotion. This image is specially prevalent when Asterios, unsurprisingly, goes through tumultuous, dark times in his life. The artist matches the mood of the character with the lighting of a scene. In contrast, happy scenes—many of them recollections from the protagonist’s past—are drawn with clear lines and bright but muted color schemes.
Historical/Literary Allusions
There are several literary and historical allusions throughout the novel, many of them an homage to classical Greek literature. Asterios life story mirrors parts of the Odyssey and towards the end of the graphic novel clear salute to Orpheus and Eurydice. This is deliberate move on the author-illustrator’s part as these literary parallels serve to highlight the protagonist’s personal development as a combination of heroes’ journey and classical Greek tragedy.
Romance/Sex
The graphic novel, at the core of it, is a love story between Asterios and Hana. In contrast to this, there is also a significant segment of the novel that covers Asterios philandering as it too is part of his heroes journey/build-up for his tragic fall. It is unsurprising therefore that there are also several images that serve to heighten the romance as well as his fall from grace as these scenes play up to the theme of duality, simultaneously humanizing the titular hero and serving to give him a villainous streak.
