The Arrival

I've never been a comic fanatic by any means, but I've always been quite entertained by graphic novels in all different forms since a very young age and that certainly hasn't faded as I've matured.  When I was younger I read mostly x-men, spiderman, batman, and other standard american comics; as I grew older I preferred manga and some more mature-themed american comics but, I've never been too far away from my superheroes. 

This first week, we were given the assignment to read Shaun Tan's, The Arrival, a wordless graphic novel, the first of which I've ever experienced.  Tan's graphic novel shows a seemingly normal gentleman immigrating to a bizarre fantasy world, one that he doesn't understand  their speech or some of their customs.  The world is certainly whimsical in a sense but many of it's inhabitants are seen doing every “normal” things such as playing with fireworks, working in a factory, and mailing letters.

Tan uses a number of different techniques in The Arrival, to move the reader effortlessly through the immigrant's tale without the use of a single written word.  Often times the novel employs “moment-to-moment” panel transitions most of the time giving the graphic novel more of a film reel quality, than the transitions that we're used to in a standard comic.  Shaun Tan's excellent use of facial expressions and hand gestures definitely play a key role in the comprehension of The Arrival, because they can depict thought and mood in a much more natural way than words ever could.  I don't think the expressions have to  be depicted as “realistically” as they were here in order for a wordless comic to be “read-able,” but I think it was more of a stylistic choice reminiscent of the immigrants of Ellis Island that everyone is familiar with.  Though The Arrival is presented in a mostly monochromatic scheme, but Tan thoughtfully implements different tones.  This can be observed in one of my favorite scenes of the book, when our protagonist hears the story of an old man; the scene starts in a happy vivid extremely warm tone, and slowly as his thoughts become darker and the imagery shifts, the tone becomes darker and unsaturated.  An other example of this is seen in a page which shows the passing of seasons through a nice “scene-to-scene” transition, with each season having it's own tone it's commonly associated with.

Through the use of familiar expressions, symbols, tones, moods, and thoughtful transitions, graphic novels are able to tell a complex tale without the use of words, which becomes evident after having come across a graphic novel such as, The Arrival.  Overall, I think this was a great experience both as an introduction to  wordless graphic novels and just as a nice “read” overall, and I'm looking forward to this upcoming semester.