Shaun Tan's The Arrival: The Thousand Word Picture

The Arrival depicts the journey of a man into a foreign land, in search of shelter, food, and a job to support his family. Living through the eyes of this man, we see the dangers and struggles that many immigrants face in society.

No words are ever used in a narrative aspect, but none are needed. Panel by panel, frame by frame, we jump across pictures crammed with information about this man, his life, the world around him, information is translated seamlessly through the use of visuals.

The book is one of many to break the rules of typical publishing, but it serves as the Bible to the genre of graphic novels that we all know of today.

No strong colors are needed either, it comes across as pencil sketches. Heavily shaded, high contrast. Faces and shapes are all that we get, but they're all we need and I believe that is a point that Shaun Tan set out to pursue while also commenting on the struggles that he himself faced as an immigrant.