Author Archives: Lars Martinson

“Tonoharu: Part Two” Dust Jackets, F&Gs

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I recently got some Tonoharu: Part Two stuff back from the book printer, so I thought I’d show it here.

Above is an unfolded dust jacket; below is a mock-up of how it’ll look folded up.


Detail

The printer also sent me “folded and gathered” signatures (or “F&Gs”). Basically this is the complete book, except it isn’t bound together, as you can see from the image below.

Here’s the first page from the comic:

And a detail of the last two panels:

I’m really excited with how all these turned out. All that’s left is for them to be bound up, and then they’re done! I’m still not exactly sure when I’ll get some books, but it won’t be long now. I’ll keep you posted!

Bonus Image:
Since I was taking photos anyway, I snapped a shot of the first panel from Tonoharu: Part Three (!) which I just started drawing this week.

It never ends, folks. (*sob*)

“Tonoharu: Part Two” Artwork Preview–Odds and Ends (1/2)

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The previous Tonoharu: Part Two artwork previews were organized by theme: City, Party, Festival, and “Action”.

I’ve pretty much run out of artwork that fits into neat little categories, especially since I only want to show artwork that is spoiler-free (at least until after the book is published). So the artwork in this entry are just random panels that I like.

I’ll do one more “odds and ends” artwork preview in a few weeks, shortly before the book comes out. Not long now, folks!

Tonoharu: Part Two will be coming out this November. For more information, visit:
larsmartinson.com/tonoharu2

Radio Interview with Your Truly.

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Britt Aamodt recently interviewed me as a part of her KFAI radio documentary about independent cartoonists in Minnesota. The documentary is a part of a series funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Foundation.

It’s already aired,  but you can stream it online by visiting:

http://www.kfai.org/node/30184

The part about me is at the end, starting at about the 25 minute mark. But you should listen to the whole thing; it’s really well done.

Britt has a book on the same subject coming out this November, entitled Superheroes, Strip Artists, & Talking Animals: Minnesota’s Contemporary Cartoonists. More information about that can be found here.

“Tonoharu: Part One” on Amazon.com’s Top Ten!

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Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder’s writeup about Tonoharu: Part One on Boing Boing, the book has made it into Amazon.com’s Top Ten Bestselling Graphic Novels today! Cool!

Amazon updates their top ten lists every hour, so if you’re reading this much later than 4:39pm Central on Friday August 27th, it might have slipped off the list (or gone up higher, who knows).

But for one shining moment, my book was selling better than Watchmen and three of the six Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. They can never take that away from me. ;-)

Buy Tonoharu: Part One from Amazon.com or
Buy Tonoharu: Part One directly from me

“Tonoharu” on Boing Boing

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Tonoharu: Part One was just written up on Boing Boing, one of the world’s most popular blogs! Oh boy!

The post can be found here. (A word of warning though; the writeup has a fairly big spoiler about Tonoharu: Part Two.)

Many thanks to Boing Boing editor Mark Frauenfelder for the coverage!

***

Oh, and if you’re a new reader who came to this site because of the Boing Boing coverage, here’s a few things you might enjoy:

Posts about Tonoharu
Posts about the making of the book, etc.

Miscellaneous amusing posts
Most of which are Japan-related

Web comics by me
Not many of them, but do check them out.

Thanks!

Minneapolis Indie Xpo Wrapup

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Pictured: My sparse, ratty little table

Last Saturday I had a table at the inaugural Minneapolis Indie Xpo.

MIX is only the second convention I’ve ever sold my work at, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I wasn’t expecting much. My first convention (SpringCon 2010) was an interesting experience, but also quite humbling. Attendees showed little interest in my work, and my sales were in the low single digits.

Since I was lugging books to MIX in my backpack, I didn’t want to bring more than I needed. So I brought eight copies of Tonoharu: Part One and about a dozen copies of Young Men of a Certain Mind. That was 2-3 times as many as I sold at SpringCon, so I figured that’d be enough.

I’m delighted to say that sales were much better than at SpringCon; I sold out of Tonoharu a couple hours before MIX ended, and only had a couple copies of YMCM at the end of the night.

Granted, I was selling Tonoharu at a discount; 25% off the cover price. But I also think that the venue was a much better fit for my work. SpringCon is more about mainstream comics, and sort of has a flea market feel to it. Not the best place to try to sell artsy, hardcover graphic novels.

This is why I’ve decided my next convention appearance will be the Twin Cities Book Festival, instead of FallCon (they fall on the same day, so I can’t go to both). Guess we’ll see how it goes!

Oh, one more note: MIX was just awesome. If you didn’t go this year, I strongly recommend you check it out next year. I was damned impressed with the whole thing. Thanks to organizers Andy Krueger and Sarah Morean for putting together such a great show!