When I interview someone, typically I enter the process knowing that the person is far more informed than I am. Part of what draws me into interviewing most folks is the realization that here is someone I can learn a great deal from, or at least that’s how it works for the most part. Then there are interviews like this one, in which I become fairly well aware, fairly quickly, that the interview subject has a wealth of knowledge that has me scrambling to the New York Public Library website to keep up with the interview subject. Such is the case here, with Lars Martinson, creator of Tonoharu. Here’s the core info you need to know about the storyteller:

“Lars Martinson was born on Mother’s Day, 1977. He has met a princess, seen a five-legged cow, and eaten raw octopus eggs. From 2003 to 2006 he taught English in Fukuoka, Japan through the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. In 2007 he received the prestigious Xeric Grant for his graphic novel Tonoharu: Part One.” He currently is in the midst of a two-year effort to study Calligraphy at Shikoku University in Japan and “is hard at work on the second part of the Tonoharu story.”

And here’s the essence of his current work:

“Daniel Wells begins a new life as an assistant junior high school teacher in the rural Japanese village of Tonoharu. Isolated from those around him by cultural and language barriers, he leads a monastic existence, peppered only by his inept pursuit of the company of a fellow American who lives a couple towns over. But contrary to appearances, Dan isn’t the only foreigner to call Tonoharu home. Across town, a group of wealthy European eccentrics are boarding in a one-time Buddhist temple, for reasons that remain obscure to their gossiping neighbors. ” (One last detail about the book? How well is it selling? Top Shelf has sold out of the first printing with a second printing on the way.)

Tim O’Shea: I found it interesting that you wrote recently in your blog: “Iris Murdoch once said ‘To be a good writer, you have to kill your babies’, and that’s what editing the text was like for me.” First off, I actually don’t think I’ve heard a graphic novelist reference Murdoch before, so I have to ask–what books or authors do you like?

Lars Martinson: I have to confess that I’ve never actually read any Murdoch; I heard the “kill your babies” quote years ago, and it stuck with me because I thought it was good advice and an apt description of the editing process. When I included it in a blog entry, I had to do an internet search to find out who to attribute it to.

But to answer your question, my favorite work of fiction is the four-volume Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell, about a group of expats living in pre-WWII Egypt. A couple of the character names in Tonoharu were taken from that series. My favorite author in general is Knut Hamsun, a 19th century Norwegian novelist. I’ve read every English translation of his work that I’ve been able to get my hands on.

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