The Arrival (3 points)

     It isn’t very often I am able to enjoy a full-length wordless comic. Most of the time I find myself indulging in wordless comics that only last a few pages, but The Arrival struck me in a much more long term way. Perhaps it was because it was so much longer than what I am used to reading that sort of forced me to focus more on the storytelling aspect. The illustrations were all so glorious and detailed it almost felt like it could start moving at any second. The way the author split every scene, every moment, and every action into small squares also helped with the reading, at least in my opinion. I assumed that no overlapping panels would make something seem constricted, but in this case, I believed it worked to the artist’s benefit. Every page felt organized and concise, sort of similar to the world/worlds he illustrated. I also felt like the vintage type feel of the paper grain put a nice contrast to the almost futuristic yet fantastical environment he put our characters in. One of the most emotional parts of the story for me was the backstory of the old man in the factory. Even without words, I felt that the artist was perfectly able to capture the amount of emotion that had gone into his life, even if it only lasted for a few panels. The passage of time illustrated when he was walking showed just enough change so that when he arrived back home to a desolate town it made it all the more impactful. (I thought it was very clever how you could tell what had happened throughout his life by showcasing him by only the torso down) A similar moment that struck me this way was the backstory of the girl who had run from a life of oppression and work. I felt like I could really feel her loneliness and captivity, especially when she was illustrated alone in such a small confined panel. It was really these two parts that kind of made me realize that not everyone has lived a happy life, but how fate can still intertwine our stories in different ways. I could say The Arrival was in reference to these moments, but after reading it in its entirety I can see that it could work with a multitude of moments. Always changing locations, new faces, and sights to see, left me feeling like the story could really go on forever if it wanted to. I thought it was nice how it almost came full circle with the new girl asking for directions just as the traveling father did all that time ago. What strikes me the most is that we, as readers, can never really know exactly how much time has passed between each event, but I’d like to think it was a small adventure in the life of a man who wanted to venture out for more. His very human behaviors of curiosity, loneliness, and love, mixed with the fun creatures, strange machines, and otherworldly giants were also something that kept me lingering for what might happen next.