Skip to main content

THE ARRIVAL

 THE ARRIVAL
- Shaun Tan -


The story revolves around an immigrant man who moved to another country. Even though he crossed the geographic barrier, there is still a language barrier. There is no better way to convey this story with just visual sequential images without words. The book could be understood globally through body language of the characters, the environment and the tone established. As an international student, sometimes, I couldn’t put my thought into words because of the insufficient knowledge of my second language, so I appreciate the storytelling choice Shaun Tan picked.

The lack of word did not affect the story as Shaun uses the right visual elements. The muted drawing created the perfect mood for the story. The camera point of view is actively zooming in and out to provide us an idea of the setting and environment. The characters are also illustrated with very expressive gesture and reaction. These sequential images are so well drawn; I can picture it as a muted old animation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ASTERIOS POLYP

ASTERIOS POLYP -David Mazzucchelli- The logic of the comic is quite contradicting since the protagonist is a respectful architecture and professor, however, his design has never been built. But it works well with the fun and spontaneous stories and characters. The visual narrative is very strong with the bold choice of color and style of art. No character is drawn in the same style of art showing that everyone is different in their own way. Each one also has their own font in their word bubbles. When there is some kind of connection between characters, they will be drawn in the same manner and I believe this is a very strong visual narrative element. It also comes to my attention that the panels are autonomous compared to other structural comics with panels right next to each other. Asterios has very well-spaced between panels and illustration making it easy for us to read and skim through the comic. Sometimes a whole page would be reserved for one illustration without...
Post a Comment
Read more

PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP ALMANAC

PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP ALMANAC  This book was very entertaining to read. They seem like comics that I would come across online. I like how simple and straightforward the art and jokes are. The style of art ranges from round simple silhouette to rendered figures, which is very interesting. The simplicity of the art makes it more relevant and funny, while the rendered pages are very pleasing to look at.   I enjoy short comics like this because they are easy to skim through when you eat or wait for something. The stories are spontaneous between pages, you never know what is up next. There aren’t any continuous narrative so it is easy to stop reading when we need to, but because it is so funny I keep want to keep reading more.   This book is hilarious, I’m glad I got to read it during final week. This is what I needed.  
Post a Comment
Read more

MARCH

MARCH  - John Lewis- What caught my attention was the way the story was told with two different timelines. Starting with John Lewis as an adult, revealing his current accomplishment. Then he began to tell the story of his journey to achieve his dream. The hardships he has to face make it seems like it is almost impossible for him to get what he wanted. Not to mention there has been occasion where he came so close to taking action like after his meeting with Martin Luther King. However, due to the danger the family would be facing, his parents weren’t supportive of his action. This was such a depressing moment; it was hard for me to continue reading. Right after John’s heart was broken; the story was cut to his adult self. This kept me reading to find how he get there, without taking any shortcut. It was also interesting how loving he is to his chickens, one of the most common farm animal. They are almost destined to be eaten, but John still bond and love each of them. I...
Post a Comment
Read more