Shaun Tan’s graphic “novel,” The Arrival, has amazing detail and thought put into every page, and the title and publication pages are no exception. Before readers even start to view the story, they are greeted by sepia tinted and worn-out looking pages that bear the title, publication information, and various illustrations that tie into details found later in the book. The pages are meant to look like old, stained pieces of paper, similar to the state one would find a letter or photograph from their great-grandparents’ time. This choice in design is especially fitting, given that The Arrival is an immigrant story, and many immigrants’ most prized possessions hold personal memories, like letters from loved ones and family pictures.
The title page features the title, author, and publishing company name, along with a square photograph of the protagonist of this story. The man in the picture is facing away from the camera, but can be easily identified by his hat and suit as the protagonist. Those who have already read The Arrival recognize that this person in the photograph is the main character, but to others, it could just be an another immigrant. Tan’s decision to conceal the man’s face and give him anonymity reinforces his purpose of making sure that The Arrival is a story that all immigrants can relate to – the absence of names, locations, and in this case, a face, serve to make this story about the universal immigrant’s experience. Bordering the photograph are adhesive tape marks, which add to the aged and personalized feel of the page.
Written on the opposite side of the title page are the dedications and publication information. The publication information is cleverly formatted in rectangular boxes made to resemble travel document attachments. Details like the large “Inspection” tag written on the top, and in the corner, “Ships list,” and other illegible words imply that this was part of a travel ticket for someone emigrating by boat ride. On the inspection ticket, letters belonging to the strange language invented by Tan that are used throughout the novel are stamped on the side, and other stamps with this strange language accompany it on the right side of the page. These stamps contribute to the page’s resemblance of a travel document. Given these details and the square photograph on the opposite page, one can assume that these documents are what the protagonist used in his journey to a new country.
Shaun Tan’s use of his invented language in the publication page and throughout the novel is an ingenious way of making sure his story applied to all immigrants. Without distinguishable letterforms, the readers have no way of figuring out where the protagonist is from or what country he is settling in, and the science-fiction like drawings of his past home and his new home make sure that no specific setting is implied. The straightforward details of The Arrival are left ambiguous – readers never find out the main character’s name, where he is from, and where he immigrated to – but such a decision strengthens the plot, and strong emotions are still conveyed through illustration only.
