The Arrival

I sat in on the Graphic Novels class today as if I were a student, no different from what I did last year with Japanese I. It's actually fun, but it gets really strange when the kids get obnoxious and there's nothing you can do about it. =) But anyway... the class looks very promising. I'm excited about the books we'll be covering throughout the semester, like Art Spiegelman's MAUS and Alan Moore's Watchmen (which I'm still trying to get through!), analyzing the definition of comics and deciding what makes a good illustrated story.

For homework, he gave us a copy of Shaun Tan's The Arrival, a short illustrated novel about a young man's experience as an immigrant.


The kicker is unlike other graphic novels, this one has absolutely no dialogue! It's just a series of images... what Will Eisner once described as traditional "Sequential Art." The Arrival is a quick read, and the illustrations are unlike anything I've seen before! They are colorless except with gray and sepia tones, depicting a foreign Metropolis that functions under the mechanics of the early Industrial Revolution. In spite of the lacking dialogue, it's unnecessary, because the images and expressions of the people are enough to understand what's going on - or what happened in the past. There's also a certain fantastical element to Tan's work, regarding the animals (often seen as house-pets in the story) and the methods of transportation. It's a great story, and the images reminded me of something Hayao Miyazaki would probably do.

Speaking of whom... I just learned that Miyazaki's newest animated film, Ponyo, just came out into theaters! Thus far he has never let me down, so I'm pretty sure I'll love the story behind this one. Can't wait to see it!