Tales From Outer Suburbia

“When I was a kid, there was a big water buffalo living in the vacant lot at the end of our street, the one with the grass no one ever mowed.”

A book of improbable stories and enigmatic illustrations. In "Tales From Outer Suburbia", Shaun Tan builds a fantastic world ever provoking your imagination. He invites you to share non trivial stories, where you feel the narratives intertwined with the ethereal images, a fusion of experiences!

It is an unusual children's book. Most of this kind of book underestimates kids' intelligence and taste. Not this one.

Shaun Tan departed from a personal collection of informal drawings that he did in a side-page style. He combines several artistic techniques in the same book. His stories address deep human subjects in a fantasy style. Fantastic places, unexpected passages and strange creatures wait you in this (not only) children's book.

The Arrival

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

Today I have discovered Shaun Tan in the book The Arrival. An artist capable of combining the fantastic with the trite, in inspiring and sensible illustrations. His book reminded me the singular technique of Moebius. In an image book with no words, Shaun Tan makes you feel the experience and the lostness of an immigrant. The fantastic land produces an unparalleled perception of being in a foreign world, without references and submerged in an unknown language.

Voyage D’Hermes by Moebius