Lars Martinson (born 1977) is an American cartoonist.

Life

Lars Martinson was born in 1977 in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. From 2003 to 2006, he lived and worked in Japan as an assistant English teacher with the

JET Program The , or , is a Japanese government initiative that brings college (university) graduates—mostly native speakers of English—to Japan as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) and Sports Education Advisors (SEAs) in Japanese kindergartens, element ...

. In 2007, he received a

Xeric Grant Deserts and xeric shrublands are a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Deserts and xeric (ancient Greek xērós, “dry") shrublands form the largest terrestrial biome, covering 19% of Earth's land surface area. Ecoregions in this h ...

for Comic Book Self-Publishers that allowed him to work on his graphic novel ''Tōnoharu''. He went back to Japan in 2008 to study East Asian calligraphy with a two-year research scholarship from the Japanese government. He returned to Japan in July 2011 again to work with the

Work

''Tōnoharu'' is the story of Dan Wells, an American assistant English teacher in rural Japan. It is inspired by Martinson's experience. It is a self-deprecatory, tender and humorous description of the daily life of an isolated dull unimaginative foreigner in a country whose language he does not master.

Books

* Young Men of a certain Mind, self-published, 2003 * Tōnoharu, Part One, Pliant Press, 2008 (Paperback edition: Top Shelf Productions, September 2014, ).Review by D. Elkin, ''Tonoharu: Part One. Paperback Edition'', i
Tiny Pages Made of Ashes 10/3/2014: Comix Don’t Take No Crap
''Comics Bulletin'' 2014/10/03. * Tōnoharu, Part Two, Pliant Press, 2010 ** ''Tonoharu'' (French translation of both volumes), Le lézard noir, 2011 * Tōnoharu, Part Three, Pliant Press, November 2016, .

References

External links

* American cartoonists American graphic novelists 1977 births Living people American male novelists {{US-cartoonist-stub