Adult Fables

It all started out with a fish in the middle of the street. I had been looking for images by Adam Rex and stumbled upon a picture of a fish swimming down the street over the head of a little girl. This picture:
The image caught me. I loved the darkness of it, the absurdity of it, and the sheer beauty of it. When I first saw it I thought that it was not really Adam Rex's style. And with good reason. This was a website dedicated to illustrators. And the artist was Shaun Tan. This particular image is from the book The Red Tree and is the story of depression. I checked it out from the library the very next day. The story is simple, one line per page and often with a dark depressed theme. It is the images that make this book. Each image has a bit of oddity, a bit of darkness, and a little ray of hope. The end is simply glorious. It is simply one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen illustrated. And I couldn't believe they had listed it as a children's book. This was far too deep for children to get.

Tan is an Australian author and illustrator who is quite simply one of the best artists out there. After The Red Tree I had to go find The Arrival. This amazing wordless graphic novel tells the story of a new immigrant to a strange land. It describes his journey over, the family he left behind, and the struggles of learning a new language and system. Without any words this book tells more deeply the immigrant experience than any other I have seen. Again this book was listed as a children's book. And again I wondered.

I was surprised to find that one of the Shaun's stories The Lost Thing is being made into a movie. Irene Gallo, who writes a blog for Tor, mentioned it in one of her posts. The video is a very good overview of Tan's work and a wonderful interview with an interesting artist. In it Shaun talks about how he doesn't really see himself as a children's author. And things finally made sense for me. Most of his books are simply far too deep for children. Like adults reading The Lorax, things in his books seem that much better when you are reading them with a little more insight. His pictures may be fantasy images but they are not really geared towards children. Shaun describes them as adult fables and I think that sums it up well.

I'm also rather impatient to get my hands on Shaun's newest book, Tales from Outer Suburbia. The book, which is already out in Canada and Australia (lucky!), is a series of small stories that show the absurdity and strangeness of city living. This image which is taken from the book is one of my favorites. I'll be first in line when it's released here in the states. As for any of his other work I would definately see about getting your hands on a copy. The artwork alone makes it worth it.