Shaun Tan - The Arrival

How do wordless comics like The Arrival tell complex stories without using words?

From observing small details in the beginning panels the reader can tell these are snapshots of a mid to lower-middle class home. The clothes on the coat rack are a man's hat and shirt, the cooking pots imply a woman, and the family is finally given away with the kid-drawing of the three of them together. More hints to their class are given by details such as the worn chips and cracks in their belongings, and a packed suitcase is shown, implying that one or more of them are leaving. From the first page alone, the reader has been given all the information they need to know what's happening, who is involved, and where the setting is. The panels are fairly simple, but extremely readable. Each one may only display an expression or an action in sequence, but the timing and flow of action never leaves the reader confused or left behind - Tan leads the reader through the pages at an easy, natural pace, almost like key-frames or a story-board would. Each new page seems to begin a new sequence or "scene," often beginning on one object before zooming out or moving around the scene to reveal more of the setting and what's taking place. The reader is given little "eye candy breaks" with full-page illustrations depicting the full scene before Tan returns to the next sequence of small panels. Textures and soft variances of color within the gray palette of the comic add a new setting element and visual interest, dropping the reader into a 19th-century time period through the comic's visual style alone. It is evident that each panel is treated with great care and detail. The space a panel is allotted on the page is also detrimental to timing and the importance of events in that panel, such as giving larger panels more visual impact. Panel sizes, along with the number of panels per page and the full-page "eye-candy" breaks are expertly varied. The reader continues to follow the family as they leave the house (avoiding the giant, ominous monster that is plaguing their city), say goodbye to the husband before he travels across the sea on a ship crowded with other people, and arrives in an alternate-world type New York. Despite the world being different, most evidently, by the fantastical creatures inhabiting it, Tan uses familiar symbols and places to keep the reader grounded. The immigrants arrive in what appears to be 1920's New York, the Statue of Liberty only replaced by two large statues exchanging gifts in peace, and the skyscrapers in the distance abuzz with hazy shapes of flying creatures. As was procedure on Ellis Island in the 1920's, the immigrants getting off the ship are checked over for health problems before being allowed to pass. Gestures and facial expressions on the characters are also integral to understanding their emotions and what's happening. The husband, now separated from his family, is given bad news in a page of "conversation" facial expressions, illustrating his fall from confusing, to arguing, to deep disappointment. From there he is sent out in a hot air balloon over the alien landscape, still rooted in our world by familiar transportation systems such as streets and recreational and architectural familiarities such as parks and New York-style buildings (only reiterated slightly). As the man looks around, we see what he sees, and are presented with snapshots of people in everyday life interacting with strange creatures. The reader connects with the man, having followed him all the way from home, and is now experiencing the same alienated feeling he encounters. The written language is different and even the time on the big street-corner seems unreadable. You are placed in the shoes of an immigrant in a new world. Lighting and composition not only create a mood, but also lead the reader's eye from panel to panel, showing them what's most important. More clues are given here and there that make the reader feel like the man is from a more realistic world closer to our own, such as when he pulls a lever connected to a faucet to get water, and is only sprayed by a pipe, or when he wants to hammer a nail into the wall to hang the picture of his family and uses the sole of his shoe. The narrative diverses when the man meets a woman who helps him find the flying vessel he wants to take, and as they sit together, she tells his story to him in a few brief pages of panels displaying key moments from her life. The story continues to follow the man, taking other short interludes into the stories of people he meets as he tries to find a job and learns the ways of this new world. The scenes, though ethereal, are depicted beautifully. Time is depicted passing through the sprout, growth, bloom, and death of a flower through seasons, all throughout two pages. The familiar building the man resides in, shown earlier, is now covered in snow. When the man receives a letter that his family is going to arrive, time speeds up between panels, more events happening between each one to make it appear that time is moving much quicker.

From there, the family's new life is shown. Mirroring the first page, each panel depicts the same type of object in each panel, but with a twist from the "new world" on it; the paper origami animal is now the man's pet creature, the clock is now the sun-machine clock, his daughter's drawings are now of flying ships, and all the objects in each panel are much nicer, illustrating how his move to the new world and starting over was for the better - with his new job he can now provide for his family better, and to carry through that point, the last panel on the page ends with not a suitcase, but his hand and his daughters as he hands her money. Their new abode is shown, much richer and more populated than the last, drawing parallels between their old life and their new one. The reader follows his daughter to school, now well-adjusted, and the story ends full-circle as she helps a lost-looking immigrant woman try to find a place to stay.
Overall the timing, placement of panels, choice of light, color, composition, and the use of space Tan decided to use created an easy to follow, riveting tale that drew the reader in with its natural rhythm. The story feels similar to reading a book, except our eyes were only carried through the expert use of visuals. Through the use of these elements and skill, Tan brought to life a complex story without the use of a single word.