This Old Pond comic is inspired by a SHARP 2017 talk by Lisa Gitelman, New York University: “Emoji Dick, Prequels and Sequels”.
Did you know Amazon produced a translation of Moby Dick using emoji? The book is called Emoji Dick. It could have been a fun project. Unfortunately the book is gibberish, as most translations were produced randomly. Here are some pictures:
Emoji Dick
Lisa Gilteman presents Emoji Dick at SHARP 2017 conference.
This comic is inspired by Maxianne Berger’s book Winnows (Imago Press) featuring haiku found in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.
Since January 2016, Old Pond Comics is published in Japan. I’ve been working with Emiko Miyashita, a haiku poet who is writing a monthly column on haiku translations for the new journal Haidan. Every month, Emiko sends me three haiku and I provide a haiku-cartoon to accompany her article.
The publisher sends me copies of the journals, but only months after publication, so Emiko occasionally sends me pictures of what the article looks like as soon as she gets her copy.
Here’s a photo of the May 2016 issue showing beautiful Japanese items on her desk. She gave me permission to share this.
Haidan (May 2016 issue). Photo by Emiko Miyashita.
Here’s the comic:
In the distant hills
A patch where sunlight touches
The withered meadows.
— Kyoshi (haiku translated by Donald Keene)
I spent Easter Sunday cutting, folding and sewing a small comic book.
I will be giving them away at the Haiku Canada Weekend, May 20-22, 2016, in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Every year, I was always waiting to the last minute to prepare my freebie, but this time I decided to prepare them early so I could focus on my presentations: I will be the keynote speaker and cartoonist-in-residence at the next Haiku Canada Weekend in May. I hope you can join us!
A few months ago, after reading the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, I went through my bookshelves and, like the author prescribed, asked myself only one question: does this book make me happy? If not, it went in a suitcase.
At the end of the afternoon, the suitcase was full and there was lots of free space on my shelves for the stuff I really cared about. It was an amazing feeling.
* * *
Recently I was preparing for a trip so I grabbed a suitcase and was surprised to find it full of books. It seems I had neglected the last step of the tidying up process which is to get rid of the stuff right away.
This morning, I hauled the suitcase to my local second-hand bookstore.
As the clerk went through the books, I felt a bit naked. The books revealed a lot about me, my personality, my interests. I felt self-conscious.
Bu then I realized: “This is not who I am, it’s who I was.”
A lot of these books I was selling because I had moved on to other interests or hobbies. The books I cared about were at home. The real me was at home. On my shelf.
puling an embroiderie thread
out of a book
I
let
go
Haigabun (a haibun accompanied by a haiga) is a technique started by Line Michaud. In here, I try my own version: a haibun followed by a comic.
Since January 2016, Old Pond Comics is published in Japan!
My comics are illustrating articles written by Emiko Miyashita — about the translation of haiku from Japanese to English — that are published in the new haiku journal Haidan. Our collaboration will extend until December 2016.
Did you know you can purchase Old Pond Comics zines on my webstore ? All prices include shipping.
A frog wants to be friends with a butterfly in my new Old Pond Comics zine. This mini-zine is folded from one sheet of paper folded 5 times. Check out this video showing the process.
You can buy a cop of the zine on my webstore.
I had a great time at Vancouver Comics Arts Festival (VanCAF) again today.
My first visitors were two members of the Vancouver Haiku Group. Then, for the next 6 hours, I talked about haiku to complete strangers (and had a lot of fun doing it!)
I was “cartoonified” by the talented Samantha Leriche-Gionet from Boumeries comics. Check out her comics Boumeries. Sam will be at the Montreal Comics Art Festival May 29-31 2015.
Jeff Chiba selling his awesome works created on post-its.
This year, VanCAF was bigger than ever, with two halls and hundreds of comic artists selling books, prints, t-shirts, doing comissions. It was awesome.
Angela from Wasted Talent.
The VanCAF organization was awesome. There were lots of volunteers who could provide change, fill in your table during breaks, or get food and supplies. That’s VIP treatment!
It was a great week-end. Can’t wait till next year!
I had a table at the Vancouver Comics Arts Festival (VanCAF) at the Roundhouse this week-end.
It was my first time at VanCAF as a vendor. It’s a curated show (meaning they carefully review each submissions and decide who gets to go in) so I was super happy to be accepted as a fellow cartoonist.
I had brought some of my haiku-comics:
I separated my table at VanCAF in two sections. This section is “Learn haiku through cartoons”. It featured my new zine “Haiku: a short introduction (with cartoons)”.
The second section of my table was dedicated to haiku-comics. It featured my book of 40 haiku-comics, some mini-zines, and free haiku-comics samples people can take home.
Many people recognized the word “Haiku” from something they’ve learned in school, years ago and stopped by to chat and buy comics.
A few people recognized my comic strips from the monthly publication The Bulletin: a journal of Japanese Canadian Community, history + culture
The show ran from 10am-6pm today and will run again from 11am-5pm tomorrow.
Thanks to everybody who stopped by the table today! I hope you will try to write haiku.
Old Pond Comics 