About Me / Contact Information


Pictured: Me, at my workspace

My name is Lars Martinson. I was born in Minnesota in 1977. I currently teach English in Kameoka Japan, while drawing comics in the evening.

I was first introduced to comic books in the sixth grade, and I’ve been drawing them ever since. My subject matter and style have changed a lot since then (I mean, one would hope, right?), but my devotion to the medium has remained constant.

I have visited more than fifteen countries as a tourist, and have lived in Thailand, Norway, and Japan. Overseas travel has proven to be a life-defining passion for me, and has afforded me the opportunity to meet a princess, see a five-legged cow, and eat raw octopus eggs.

My interest in travel and comics intersected during the course of my stay in Japan from 2003 to 2006. I was employed as an assistant English teacher through the JET Program, an exchange program sponsored by the Japanese government. The experience had a profound effect on me, one that I thought would serve as an interesting basis for a story.

With that in mind, I began work on a four-part graphic novel called Tonoharu at the beginning of my tenure on the JET Program. I continue to work on it today, and am now working on the third part.

In 2007 I was honored with a prestigious Xeric Grant for Comic Book Self-Publishers, to self-publish the first part of Tonoharu: Part One, which is now available for sale. See details about that here.

In April 2008 I returned to Japan to begin the study of East Asian Calligraphy under the auspices of a two-year research scholarship from the Japanese Government. The experience has been a revelation, and has greatly improved the quality of my comics.

In 2010 I released the second volume of Tonoharu.

This site is updated every couple weeks, so stop by again, or subscribe to the RSS feed. Thanks!

To view blog entries about my experiences in the JET Program, click here.
To learn more about my graphic novel
Tonoharu, click here.
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