Have you ever felt like the most ordinary places hold hidden worlds? Shaun Tan, the brilliant mind behind Tales from Outer Suburbia, understands that feeling perfectly. Now adapted into a captivating TV series, his work proves that magic isn't just found in faraway lands; it pulses beneath the surface of our everyday lives.
Growing up in the suburbs of Perth, Australia, in the 1980s, Tan readily admits he was often... bored. Hillarys, now a bustling waterfront area, was, in his words, "a bit of a nowhere sort of place" back then. His parents, seeking a fresh start, built a house in a new development where community ties were still forming. This isolation, however, became the unlikely catalyst for his incredible imagination.
He spent countless hours exploring the local park and cycling through the neighborhood with other kids. These seemingly mundane adventures became fertile ground for his creative seeds. "There was that sense that you were in this castaway universe," Tan recalls. "A lot of boredom but then, occasionally, you would encounter strange things." The wide, empty streets became canvases for his own thoughts and imaginings. He transformed the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Tan channeled this childhood creativity into a remarkable career, writing and illustrating 14 books (and illustrating many more!). His talent even earned him an Oscar for his short film adaptation of The Lost Thing. And now, another of his beloved books, Tales from Outer Suburbia (published in 2008), has been brought to life as an animated series on ABC iview. This series is especially exciting because it allows viewers to experience Tan's unique vision in a brand-new way.
The book, and now the series, draws directly from the musings, fanciful daydreams, and peculiar observations of his suburban childhood. Tan vividly remembers one particular incident: "I do remember once there was some kind of strange wind, and I went down to the park," he describes. "And tons of newspapers had somehow been caught up in the wind, and it was just blowing across the landscape." This seemingly simple moment, imbued with a sense of wonder, was later recreated in the book and now appears as a poetic scene in the animated series.
"It was a fairly ordinary thing, but it had its own magic," Tan says, perfectly encapsulating the essence of his work: finding the extraordinary within the mundane. He elevates the everyday to something uniquely special, prompting us to reconsider the world around us. But here's where it gets controversial... Is it really magic, or is it something else entirely?
Tales from Outer Suburbia is brimming with bizarre occurrences, presented with understated charm: deep-sea divers casually stroll to the corner store, a tiny, pointy-headed visitor takes up residence in the crockery cupboard, and glittering goldfish dance across the night sky. These fantastical elements are seamlessly interwoven with the familiar fabric of suburban life, creating a captivating blend of the real and the surreal.
"I'm always wary of fantasy, because it can sort of spin off into something that feels detached and dreamlike," Tan explains. He gravitates towards surrealism, drawn to the fun of imagining weird things. "The more I think about it and draw it and write it, the more I realize it's not actually fantasy, it's tapping into the fact that all things are strange," he says. He encourages us to see the world with fresh eyes, noticing the oddities that we often overlook. And this is the part most people miss... He argues that everyday things are inherently strange.
"The way we behave, the things we eat, the vehicles we operate: they're all strange, and they've all got a complicated history, and they're all somewhat arbitrary things that happen outside of our control." Think about it: driving a car is a normal activity for most people, but when you really consider the mechanics, the engineering, and the social structures that make it possible, it's actually quite bizarre!
While there's a warm, gentle nostalgia woven into Tan's work, it's also tinged with a certain melancholy. He reveals that he's often grappled with feelings of being an outsider, especially as a half-Asian child growing up in a predominantly white area. "All my stories are about this question of belonging, I've noticed, and this constant feeling of displacement," he muses. "It could be a personal thing, but I suspect it's something a bit deeper and more existential that everybody asks themselves at some point."
He poignantly asks, "You know, 'how is it that I happen to be born in this particular time and place? And what does it mean?'" This universal question of identity and purpose resonates deeply within his work.
Despite being frequently labeled as a children's author and illustrator, Tan admits he's always been somewhat perplexed by that designation. "This TV series might have been the first time actually that I've thought about kids," he laughs. He clarifies that he never consciously targets a specific audience. Instead, he often features child protagonists because "they're more open to being curious."
"My work, if anything, is trying to bridge the curiosity that we sustain from childhood into adulthood," he explains. "I see these as very adult stories; they just use the memories of childhood to reinvigorate the adult perception. But in doing so, it ends up being very appealing to kids also." His stories remind us to maintain that childlike wonder and to see the world with fresh eyes, regardless of our age.
While the stories of Tales from Outer Suburbia are firmly rooted in residential cul-de-sacs, bathed in the almost romantic glow of a hot, endless summer, Tan is quick to clarify that he's not necessarily glorifying suburban life. "I don't know if the suburbs get a bad rap, sometimes it's deserved," he laughs. "I think it's not so much a bad rap as no rap." In other words, he feels the suburbs are often overlooked and underappreciated as a source of artistic inspiration.
His interest in writing about his upbringing was sparked by the work of fellow Perth writer Tim Winton. "He's a little bit older than me, but he's grown up in Karrinyup, which was the neighboring suburb, and he wrote about the landscape," Tan says. "I'd never seen it in literature before, and I was like, 'holy crap, you can write about the place where you grew up, and it's as important as anywhere else in the world?'" Winton's work opened Tan's eyes to the artistic potential of the ordinary.
Now, Tan frequently revisits the suburbs of Perth for inspiration. "All of my work is really a variation on that suburban landscape. I might set it on another planet or something, but it's still the same structure and the same feeling." He encourages readers to find their own meanings within his work.
"I have my idea of how things look and the story that plays out in my mind, but I'm aware that when it goes to another reader, it becomes a very different thing — and I've always encouraged that." He embraces the idea that art is a collaborative process between the creator and the audience.
And he's genuinely excited to see how viewers will interpret his stories in their animated form. "I've always said: the book starts where it ends." This suggests that the story doesn't truly come alive until it's experienced and interpreted by the reader or viewer.
So, what do you think? Does Shaun Tan's work resonate with your own experiences of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary? Do you agree that the suburbs are an untapped source of artistic inspiration? And what does it mean to you that "the book starts where it ends"? Share your thoughts and interpretations in the comments below!
