When I first wrote about Australian illustrator and writer Shaun Tan back in March, it looked as though his site was on a server with limited bandwidth, which visits from lines and colors readers quickly overloaded. This unfortunately rendered his site inaccessible for several days, if not weeks, so many of you didn’t get to see it at the time.
Tan has revised his site, and added some striking new material from his most recent book, The Arrival (slated for US release in October), which are more than enough to warrant another visit. These are beautiful and fascinating pencil illustrations that tell their story without words. Though there is definitely a narrative, the actual story presented by the images is open to much interpretation and imaginative fancy on the part of the “reader”.
(Wonderful experimental narratives like this are one of the reasons you’ll hear me gripe about the misappropriation of the term “graphic novel” by the comic book industry to refer to any old bunch of comics with a book-like binding.)
Unfortunately, though improved in many ways, Tan’s new site is in frames (for reasons that elude me), and I can’t give you a direct link. Go to the picture books page and click on the cover of The Arrival.
If you haven’t seen Tan’s work be sure to investigate the rest of the site, particularly the other entries in the picture books section.
[Suggestion courtesy of Seven Withrow & Jack Harris]
It is published in France and I did not buy it because I thought it was a story about his family :-) It seems I was wrong :-))
Thanks for the note. Li-An. I’ve added a link to the Amazon.com listing for U.S. readers. The book is scheduled to be released here in October, but can be pre-ordered now.
Other readers should check out Li-An’s always fascinaiting blog. Though the text is in French, the visuals speak all languages. The blog showcases many fascinating artists, as well as providing a look at some of Li-An’s own excellent illustration and comics work.
I live in Australia and had the privilege of going to the launch of The Arrival sometime last year in Nov-Dec, and hear Shaun give a seminar about his inspiration and artistic process, though I missed most of its start unfortunately. (And got to pick up a copy too!) Shaun is one of my favourite artists - I own almost all his graphic novels - and The Arrival is absolutely stunning in every way. I think anyone who appreciates art, not just graphic novels, will want to own it.
hi,must be Australia day!As Vega says, Shaun Tan is stunning, absolutely beautiful work and i just heard last night that he has won the Childrens Book Award for Best Illustrated, obviously!
Hi Shaun,
I’m a Perth artist who recently saw your wonderful works of art . We have similarities in our style and subject matter, It was a member of the Mundaring art gallery who showed me a couple of your books, I was very intrigued and inspired. I just recent entered a painting there called ‘Happily Never After”, An industrial world. I really must see more of your work, Keep up the great work.
your illustrator was imagine your aginiese.wonderfull.