The Arrival

After reading "The Arrival" by Shaun Tan I was amazed and impressed by how naturally the story read.  I have read a few graphic novels before but never one without words.  There was a charming cinematic essence I felt while I was reading this story and I became so lost in it I forgot to look for the tools he was using to tell the story.  I had to go back after finishing the novel and look again.  I noticed how specific Shaun Tan was in choosing his story beats.  He didnt chose only enough beats to tell the story but he also drew enough panels to give the characters personality, which I felt really set this story apart.  He didn't rely on dialogue and text to give reader an idea about what kind of personality each character had, he showed them.
He told a complex story with complex characters with only images and had to make specific choices when staging and laying out each shot.  The continuity from frame to frame played a much larger role than previous comics or graphic novels that I have read because it had no text to tell the story.  The pages had to be layed out like a story board and the eye trace had to connect from frame to frame so the reader would not get confused and the panels read seamlessly.
Shaun Tan's use of statues from city to city was a creative solution to telling the audience what kind of city it was.  Also the the symbols that where used as a language made the story universal and the immigrant theme can be related to anyone in any part of the world.
I really enjoyed this book and I would recomend it to anyone.  I wish I would have known of it before because it is not only a incredible reference for story telling but he uses a lot of tools used in film making.