What really puts comics and graphic narratives in their own category apart from illustrations, novels and other traditional forms of literature or image making is their ability to not only present but employ actual visual images to create the story, advance it, and make it more compelling. There is an emphasis on employ here because, in this genre in particular, it is really not enough to simply have pictures alongside language or as a supplement to language. To be successful, they must work in tandem in order to create a sense of space and time.
Works like Shaun Tan's The Arrival demonstrate just how graphic the narrative can be. It uses an implied language that manifests itself as a concrete yet fluid narrative that uses no words. Although the entire book is an impressive testament to this feat, for examples one need look no further than the first two pages. On the first, there are 9 evenly spaced panels each with a single object in the frame. To read this page is to become familiar with each of these objects, for when we turn the page we find all of them placed within a single setting. Spatial relations between them set a scene, and because we have read the page previous, we understand the sophistication of this scene. We are much more prepared to comprehend this particular moment in time and all the different levels that the image is operating on. Here the artist employs the actual time it takes to view two pages of images to foster an understanding of the narrative timeline. This is how I come to realize that the story begins in medias res.
