When characters develop in a story, their development is typically seen through their actions. In the context of novels, or books where text is the primary medium, character development must be shown through words. It is the job of the author to properly describe this to the reader. The wonderful thing about graphic novels is that there is the opportunity to create a character’s personality through words and images.
In Asterios Polyp David Mazzucchelli is able to utilize so many different styles to fabricate his characters. One of my favorite pages is in the apple chapter (why is there no pagination??) where Ignazio plays with the thought that the reality we perceive is just an extension of ourselves. The illustrations on this page are fascinating because Mazzucchelli really plays with all sorts of different visual designs that could make up a persona. It really would be something if we could each color the world to the way we portray ourselves. Although this page is by far the most exaggerated, Mazzucchelli uses different techniques with each character in the book to develop their personalities beyond their actions or words. Take Asterios for example. He is defined by linear lines and planes, hinting to the order he strives for in life. Even his speech bubble is not really a bubble because it is a rectangle. Mazzucchelli creates different speech bubbles for every character, playing with the fonts and the shapes, but Asterios is the only person to have a polygon as his speech bubble shape. The change we see in Asterios is at the end when his rigid speech bubble is able to mold and intertwine with Hana’s. Of course there are also Asterios’ actions to show his personality and how it changes, but Mazzucchelli demonstrates how he can use the storyline and the visuals to depict his characters’ personas.
I also noticed the change in Asterios’ speech bubble. I thought the intermingling of Asterios’ and Hana’s text was a nice symbolic touch at the end of the story. While reading I paid particular attention to the change in the font of the character’s text bubbles. Each character had their own individual thought that reflected their personality. For example, Asterios’ font was really angular and all capital letters, while Hana’s font was much softer and more rounded.