Lars Martinson Interview

Lars Martinson is the author and cartoonist of the graphic novel Tonoharu. Tonoharu follows the life of a young American who relocates to a rural Japanese town to serve as an assistant English teacher at a local school. Recently Lars spoke to us about his creative process, Japan, and the creation of his book Tonoharu.

BH: Tonoharu is a book based on your experiences working with the JET program, how close are the struggles of the main character to your own experiences?

LM: I didn’t set out to write an autobiography, and as such the experience of my main character differs from my own in many ways. But some of the difficulties he faces are fairly universal for those living abroad for an extended period of time, such as the bouts of loneliness and the difficulty fitting in. My own experiences certainly shaped how I portrayed that in the book.

BH: You started Tonoharu while you were in Japan in 2003, how do you maintain momentum on such a long-term project? Do you work through inspiration or use schedules or some other method? Inspiration only comes in short, unpredictable bursts for me, so I pretty much have to use a set schedule in order to get anything done. Everyday I try to work for a certain number of hours, and even use a stopwatch to keep myself honest, pausing it whenever I get up to take a break or go to the bathroom or whatever.

LM: One nice thing about drawing comics, though, is there are several different tasks you can do; writing, penciling, inking, scanning, etc. So I usually start the day with the hardest task for me, penciling, and then after I’ve done that for a couple hours I “reward” myself by working on something less hard, like inking or scanning. By switching things up like that I can put in a full day of work without going too crazy from the monotony of drawing the same characters hundreds of times.

BH: One of the things that struck me most about Tonoharu was how subtle the plot line was, in a very understated way you move your readers through a series of experiences that leave us on the last page with some very strong emotions that have only quietly developed over time. In a way, it very much reminded me of Murakami's After the Quake, a series of short experiences that seemed to have more of an emotional narrative than a more plot-driven narrative. Are you a fan of Japanese literature? Is there an influence here?

LM: Honestly I’ve only read a few Japanese novels in translation; I have long planned to read more Japanese novels in the original Japanese once my language skills were up to the task, but I’m sad to say I’m not quite there yet.

The understatement of the story was deliberate, though. I tried to put just enough information in for the reader to follow the story, in the hopes that they’d fill in the blanks and invest themselves more than if I spelled everything out. In storytelling (and in general) I think I have a tendency to overexplain, so I’m always trying to curb that. I would fret every time I decided to edit something out, but 90% of the time, once it was gone I realized the story was better off without it.

BH: Had you shopped Tonoharu around before you won the Xeric Foundation grant?

LM: Not really. I hope to be able to continue creating comics for the long haul, and figured it’d be a good idea to familiarize myself with the book business to the service of that goal. By self-publishing I was forced to deal with a lot of things I would have rather left to someone else, such as marketing, accounting, etc. But I think it’s important to have at least a basic understanding of these things, so I’m glad to have had the experience.

BH: As an artist you're very accessible. You maintain a blog yourself and make yourself very open and easy to approach. How do you think this impacts your relationship with your audience? Are you ever scared or elated by the feedback that you receive from fans?

LM: Tonoharu is my first book, and has been available in traditional retail outlets for only about a month now. So it’s not like I’ve been swamped with fan letters or anything. But I generally get a few e-mails a week about my work, and for the most part the response has been good, I’m happy to say. It always inspires me to work a little harder on the second part when I hear from people who have enjoyed the first volume.

I wouldn’t say that I was ever really “scared” by any of the responses that I got, although it’s still weird to get e-mails from complete strangers from different parts of the world (but cool too, of course). I think my brain still has a hard time wrapping itself around the idea that people outside of my circle of acquaintances are reading my book.

BH: Do you work primarily as a loner? Or do you find yourself interacting and trading ideas and support with many other cartoonists?

LM: I primarily work alone. I wish I had more cartoonist friends to bounce ideas off and so forth, but networking has never been my strong point.

I do have one good, non-cartoonist friend who also taught in Japan, and I’ll frequently show drafts of the story to him and get his feedback. Sometimes I take his advice, other times I ignore it, but in any event it’s great to get the perspective of someone who’s a little more removed from the story.

BH: Are there any upcoming projects or developments you'd like to share with our readers?

LM: I’m currently back in Japan, on a government scholarship to study Japanese Calligraphy. I continue to work on the second part of Tonoharu, and hope to have it finished for release in 2009... Other than that, I try to update my blog weekly, so those interested in my work might want to check that out, at www.larsmartinson.com

Tonoharu is currently available through Top Shelf Productions.