SBS launches online graphic novel adaptation of Nam Le’s ‘The Boat’

An interactive online graphic novel adaptation of Nam Le’s short story ‘The Boat’, from Le’s short story collection of the same name, has been launched by SBS to commemorate 40 years of Vietnamese resettlement in Australia.

Australian-born and New York-based comic artist Matt Huynh told the Sydney Morning Herald he worked for over a year to adapt Le’s story about a 16-year-old refugee whose family sends her away after the fall of Saigon. Huynh, whose own parents fled from Vietnam to Australia after the war, said he wanted his adaptation to ‘create an entry point into the conversation about refugees and asylum seekers today’. ‘When I talk casually to friends and younger people about these issues, I notice a reticence to enter the debate. I feel they’re afraid to enter into the issue because it feels overwhelming … this is an entry point,’ said Huynh.

The multimedia adaptation incorporates a mix of Huynh’s illustrations, interactive animation by Matt Smith and sound design by Sam Petty. Embedded in the main narrative are four side-stories that use archival images to give added historical context. The full online graphic novel can be accessed here.

Category: Local news