When someone asks if you’re crying, always deny.
is that dew
the horse’s tears?
rice blossoms
— Haiku by Kobayashi Issa (translated by David G. Lanoue), cartoon by Jessica Tremblay (Old Pond Comics)
baby sparrows
by the cow and the horse
untrampled
– Haiku by Kobayashi Issa translated by David G. Lanoue, illustrated in haiku-comic by Old Pond Comics
“Watch out for that horse!
Watch out!”
mother sparrow calls
– Haiku by Kobayashi Issa, Tr. David G. Lanoue, ill. Old Pond Comics
I can’t draw to save my life. Lucky for me, there’s a computer program called Illustrator that helps me draw straight lines.
How do you become a cartoonist when you can’t draw? I learned not to freak out.
If I have to draw a horse, my first thoughts are usually “How am I gonna draw a horse? I don’t know how to draw a horse!!!”, but then I remember the works of French painter Rene Magritte who wrote, underneath the painting of a pipe, “This is not a pipe” (“Ceci n’est pas une pipe”). Of course it’s not a pipe… it’s a painting of a pipe!
Rene Magritte’s “La Trahison des Images” (1928-9) From: University of Alabama site, “Approaches to Modernism”
Basically, it doesn’t have to “be” a horse, it just has to “look” like a horse.
So there you go. This is my representation of a horse for you…
Here’s a look at my sketchbook and the final version made in Illustrator. The final comic was published in Haiku Canada Review (october 2014 issue). Thanks to editor Leroy Gorman!
stone still
for the smelling horse…
a frog
– A haiku by Kobayashi Issa,
translated by David G. Lanoue,
illustrated by Old Pond Comics
All the day teasing
the horse’s ear
little butterfly
– A haiku by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue, illustrated by Old Pond Comics
my snowball
the horse
ate it
– A haiku by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue, illustrated by Old Pond Comics
