Week One: The Arrival

The Arrival demonstrates how to portray readable story telling without the use the of physical words that traditional comics are known for. Though there are no words, there is a delicate story being written from panel to panel.

The Arrival uses common stereotypes which most of the audience can recognize and interpret the general message the writer is leading the reader towards.  The story doesn't necessarily use character or racial stereotypes such as, "this character is smart because they're wearing glasses," but it uses more generic stereotypes like a nuclear family model and using universally understood facial expressions, hand gestures and symbols. The artist helps guide what the reader should be interpreting by using different tones of color and different panel borders to tell the reader there is a flash back happening or whether the situation is serious or light hearted.

Border changes 

 

Changes in color

Universal symbols and facial expressions

While reading, I found myself having to look at panels multiple time before understanding the situation. It was if my brain was figuring out pieces of a puzzle thinking, "oh he is looking for work" and "oh he is trying to buy groceries," while I was reading. When reading comics, I tend to rely heavily on the dialogue and words to guide me through the story only taking a brief moment to look at the artwork. I know some friends who speed through the comics and hardly take time to enjoy the visuals. So it is fun mind puzzle to read a wordless comic such as The Arrival where the visuals have to be well executed and planed out for the story to be told.

The writer picks a concept that is easy to identify with; the feeling of being somewhere unknown and new. I myself have dealt with this every time I've transferred schools or traveled somewhere new. Though the situations are not of the same gravity compared to the main character in The Arrival, where he moves to what seems like a completely new world with a culture, animals, and language unlike what is normal for earth, the core concept of the unknown is still there to relate to making it a fun, engaging read.