I had never heard of Shaun Tan, or any of his works before. On first thought of having to read a comic that was wordless, I imagined a more humorous, black and white, very simply drawn comic. I was really surprised when I saw every page was just full of amazing, rendered drawings. Seriously, it's just a gorgeous book. My favorite parts, drawing wise, are all the creatures and crazy architecture he has, especially the main characters.... dog... thing that he gets when he moves into his first apartment.
While "reading" through it, I felt that this book really shows how much power hand gestures can have. Since there are no words, hands seem to be the first line of communication (besides faces and other body language). The comic itself had some really cool pacing, and flash black moments. It uses a lot of sequential shots, kinda like if an animation was chopped up into its key frames.
I could relate to the story as well, both of my parents were immigrants/from recent immigrant families. I experienced this culture shock myself when I went back to Taiwan last summer and visited Malaysia. It's confusing and scary, and it really is like you're missing out completely on a whole different world.
Overall, I think this "comic" is really great, I really enjoyed experiencing it (it felt more like an experience, rather than reading) and I really hope I can do something so expressive in the future.
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