Author Archives: Lars Martinson

Just a quick reminder that Hot Ink: Comic Art in Minnesota, an exhibit at the Minnesota Museum of American Art that includes original art by me and other Minnesota cartoonists, the closes in just TWO WEEKS, on January 4th, 2009.

So if you live in the Twin Cities and haven’t gone yet, now’s the time! More information can be found on the MMAA website.

Progress Bar Key
Scripting/Page Layout: Self-explanatory
Artwork: The Drawing, Inking, and Computer Work for the comic
Final Edits/Incidentals: Post-Production Edits, Designing the Cover, Preparing for Press, etc.

****
When I wrote the first progress report for Tonoharu: Part Two back in mid-July, I was a quarter of the way through the artwork. I concluded the entry saying I’d update on my progress again when the artwork was halfway done. I estimated/hoped that that update would come in “three or four months”, which would have been in mid-October/November.

So here we are at the end of December. And instead of being halfway done with the artwork, I’m only a little over a third of the way through it. Sigh.

I started a post-grad research scholarship in April of this year, and that, along with other obligations, have placed more demands on my time than I had originally anticipated. So I haven’t been able to put in as many hours into the comic as I had hoped, hence the slower production. Continue reading Tonoharu: Part Two–Progress Report #2→

Pictured: Morikami-sensei, and Yours Truly

I haven’t done a “Media Coverage Roundup” since August, so I figured it was about time for another one.

My graphic novel Tonoharu: Part One has been out for a while now, and the effects of my initial marketing push have died down. So there hasn’t been a massive amount of coverage since last time. But there still were a few notable pieces:

*** As you probably gathered from the scan at the top of this entry, I was recently covered in a Japanese newspaper. Tokushima Shinbun wrote an article about my comics and Japanese Calligraphy research at Shikoku University. This is the first Japanese coverage I’ve ever gotten (that I’m aware of), so it was fun to see. For those who can read Japanese, the article can be read online here, or a virtually incomprehensible Google Translate English translation can be found here.

*** Tonoharu: Part One was reviewed in the October 2008 issue of the venerable Comics Journal (issue #293). The review doesn’t appear to be online, but if you’d like to pay a little over ten bucks to get your hands on it, here’s the amazon.com link. The review is mixed, but overall is fairly positive. Reviewer Bill Randall begins by saying he wants to buy me a beer, which is how all reviews for Tonoharu should begin.

*** Finally, Brandon & Tim (couldn’t find their last names anywhere) chatted about my book on their podcast Deconstructing Comics. This is, to my knowledge, the first (and so far only) non-text coverage I’ve ever received. I’ve grown accustomed to reading complete stranger’s opinions about my work, but listening to complete strangers talk about it was a little weird/unsettling; more visceral, or something.

They had mixed feelings about the book, and conclude by giving it “two thumbs sideways”. Oh well. Click here for the mp3. They start off discussing a different graphic novel (Alex Robinson’s Too Cool to be Forgotten), so they don’t get into Tonoharu until the 14:30 mark. Continue reading Media Coverage Roundup→