The Arrival

How wordless comics like the arrival tell complex stories without the use of words?  This is a very interesting question.  Books like this can be confusing.  Instead of the book telling you what to look for, the reader has to look for the interest point themselves.  This can also be a very involved experience.  The reader has to look at each element in the image and peice together what is taking place.  But like I stated before this can be confusing.  Most readers are just that, readers.  They are not used to reading a book with no words.  A picture book can even involved more work than a book with text.  The reader has to make sure that every detail is seen and compatible with the information of the previous picture and since there are no words, the reader has to sometimes guess about what is going on in the image.  If the illustration is poorly done, the story could easily unravel and loss track of itself, not to mention the reader.  Words are used to communicate with one another and express thoughts and opinions.  Without words, these things become less concrete, they are assumed based on how the characters are drawn.  The illustrations do however convey emotion and maybe personality, morals, ethics and motives but only if they are illustrated in the right way.  Books with no words are like movies with no sound, you can somewhat tell what is happening like emotion, tension, atmosphere, temperature, mood and facial expressions.  But while these remain, the feeling of seeing these happen is not the same as hearing and seeing the movie.  One of the senses are muted or at the very least, the volume has been turned down.