The Arrival by Shaun Tan

The reason a comic like The Arrival works so well is because of how well Shaun Tan understands the general use of visual language.  Tan understands what reactions to have his characters do, when to put flashbacks in use to explain a backstory, and the subconscious understanding of how much the reader can connect themselves by simply looking at two images.  There's an interaction that the main character had with a immigration worker who was interrogating him and all of his reactions were completely spot on for someone who doesn't understand a language. The guy went to his ear implying he couldn't hear, he shrugged, his eyebrows and eyes gave the perfect look of genuine confusion. The combination of these aspects along with reading them all together makes it simple to recognize "hey, this character doesn't understand the language of his new country".  It's interesting how he's so good at understanding what we need explained and what can be left to the imagination in order to help the story.  I have no clue what the black monsters were and how they came to be, but that adds to the mysteriousness of his world.  Meanwhile, I immediately can figure out when he immigrates to another country (that I assumed was America because the reference he used seemed like an image of old New York) but none of this was stated at all, it was simply showing the man going on a long boat trip overseas.  A really important key to the story was also how he kept reminding us of significant objects that mattered in the story, like the man's framed picture he kept of his family. I can't even count how many times he snuck it into the story but it helped reinforce that "look, this is important, this is his family that he cares greatly about". The reason we can even come to that conclusion is how he assumes we know that whenever we care deeply about a friend/ family member we keep photos of them. This use of common knowledge and simple story build up along with flashbacks and reinforcement through objects is what collectively makes this story work and read better than most movies out today.