David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp and Seth’s George Sprott: (1894-1975) Make Amazon’s Best Books of 2009

It’s always nice to see comic books receiving accolades from the wider literary community. Which is why I was pleased to see that two fantastic comic books appeared in Amazon.com’s recently published editor’s choices for the top 100 books of 2009.

Making an appearance at #67 is David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp, an original graphic novel about the eponymous protagonist, Asterios Polyp, a 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.

Then making an appearance at #75 is Canadian Cartoonist Seth’s George Sprott (1894-1975). A hardcover collection of the comic strip from the New York Times Magazine’s funny pages, telling the fictional tale of George Sprott, the host of a long-running television program. The events forming the patchwork of Georges life are pieced together from the tenuous memories of several informants, who often have contradictory impressions. His estranged daughter describes the man as an unforgivable lout, whereas his niece remembers him fondly. His former assistant recalls a trip to the Arctic during which George abandoned him for two months, while George himself remembers that trip as the time he began writing letters to a former love, from whom he never received replies.

These are both fantastic books, and it’s a shame they didn’t rank higher in the list, but as the only two comics to even make the top 100 choices, these are both great picks.

As a side note, not one comic made the customer’s choice top books. However, Tori Spelling’s book did… go figure!