Graphic panelling and the promotion of transnational affiliations in Thien Pham’s Sumo

In Thien Pham’s comic Sumo, simple graphics, iconic figures and limited dialogue assist in efficiently conceptualizing the notion of the transitive, the ability to convey meaning, to allow images to translate concepts quickly, including that of transnationalism itself. Character Scott, a failed American football player, relocates to Japan to take up sumo. His physical transnational move and eventual accommodation to a new sport, new city and new friends are reflected in Pham’s loose OuBaPo form: sections of the comic occurring in Japan and those in the United States follow a fairly strict panel count, diminishing evenly as the narrative progresses, suggesting Scott’s amalgamation of and acceptance in the East from his arrival from the West. But neither is privileged in Pham’s use of nearly equal numbers of panels representing Scott’s past in the United States, present in Japan and future in a smooth amalgamation of football and sumo, East and West, strength and flexibility, failure and success. Sumo uses efficient visual approaches – the unique play inherent in OuBaPo as a drawing exercise in constraints, colour-coded panels and iconicity – to accommodate and unify race and national differences.