Old Pond Haiku Comics: A History and General Overview / Jessica Tremblay

Old Pond Haiku Comics:

A History and General Overview

Jessica Tremblay

Old Pond Comics is a unique comic strip featuring haiku, a short poem from Japan, and two witty frogs: Master Kawazu, the frog that inspired Basho’s famous haiku, and his apprentice Kaeru.

Since 2007, Old Pond Comics delights poets of all levels by poking fun at haiku rules, illustrating famous haiku poems, and depicting the adventures of a haiku apprentice.

The beginning

Many years ago, Kawazu was just an ordinary frog sitting on a pond when a haiku poet, in search of inspiration, asked him to jump in the water.

In this first series of comics, created during 24-Hour Comics Day, I explored what would have happened if the frog refused to jump in.

At the end, the frog jumps in the water, Basho finishes his haiku, and the poem becomes one of the most famous haiku in history.

The frog is very proud that his name, Kawazu, which means “frog” in ancient Japanese, appears in the original poem by Basho:

furuike ya

kawazu tobikomu

mizo no oto

old pond

a frog jumps in

the sound of water

And that’s when Kawazu, after having inspired — or “co-written” — the world’s greatest haiku, becomes Master Kawazu and decides to open a haiku school.

But a master wouldn’t be a master without an apprentice.

The Apprentice

When Kaeru, a young frog, leaves his pond and goes to the city in search of a haiku teacher, he applies for a prestigious haiku school, meets the toughest teacher (the Haikuza), but doesn’t find what he’s looking for.

The small frog returns home, and that’s when he meets the perfect haiku teacher, Master Kawazu, sitting in the pond.

Kaeru wants to study with Kawazu but there’s only one problem, one condition: in order to become Master Kawazu’s apprentice, Kaeru must pass a test and write one haiku a day for a month.

A Haiku a Day

For February 2011, Michael Dylan Welch invited people to write one haiku a day for a month. The event, called National Haiku Writing Month (or NaHaiWriMo), took place on Facebook.

It’s during NaHaiWriMo that the first haiku-comics were born. Up until now, the frogs were discussing haiku, but they were not writing it. This time, instead of a joke or a gag in the third panel, I inserted a haiku (written by Kaeru).

The haiku had to complement the comic without repeating it. In that sense, haiku-comic is a lot like a haiga painting. You can read the comic in the first two panels by itself, but if you read further you get a deeper understanding of the comic with the third panel.

During that month of haiku-comics, the fact that it was Kaeru, in the comic, who was writing the haiku took the pressure off me a little bit and allowed me to experiment with the genre which I called “haiku-comics”.

What is a Haiku-Comic?

A haiku-comic is a comic strip incorporating a haiku. It was a new genre whose conventions were not yet written. After years of practice, trials and errors, I created my own conventions. I started by experimenting with different ways I could include a haiku in a comic strip. For example:

• 1. The haiku can occupy a whole panel, usually the first or last one, leaving two panels for the comic.

  2. The haiku can occupy three panels, with one line per panel. The text and the comic share the space in each panel.

  3. The haiku can serve as dialogue.

  4. The haiku can be talked about or suggested, without really appearing in the comic.

Similarities between comics and haiku

There are lots of similarities between comics and haiku. That’s why the genres work so well together.

Rule of three

There are three panels in a comic strip and three lines in a haiku. Sometimes, I will place one line of haiku per panel. You can see the action unfold with the poem.

Structure

A comic strip has a beginning, middle, and a punch line that either surprises, shocks or generates laughter. A haiku will have a very similar structure: the juxtaposition of two images and the cutting word will act to create a pause before the moment of surprise. That’s my favourite part in haiku and in comics: the dramatic tension before the revealing of the surprise or punch line. In comics, this happens in the white space between panels two and three. It’s a very important break before the punch line.

Season

Before I start drawing, I have to determine where the action is taking place. Most of the time the action takes place in a pond and the characters are frogs, so it’s implied that the action is taking place in the spring. The background acts as my kigo (season word) by revealing where and when the action is taking place.

Short

There’s a lot of editing involved in writing a comic strip, due to the small amount of space available. Usually, I place the rough dialogue on the strip and it goes way beyond the panel. I have to cut down all unnecessary words, adverbs, adjectives, and find a way to say as much as possible in as few words as possible, just like in a haiku.

Short – Long – Short

Due to the shape of the speech bubble, the dialogue will naturally be displayed in a “short-long-short” pattern. This makes the dialogue look like a haiku.

Facial Expression

Sometimes, a whole dialogue can be replaced by one word, an interjection (oh-ah!), or simply the expressions on the characters’ faces. My favorite comics are the ones that convey a story or emotion without any dialogue, like a visual haiku.

Portrait of the artist

I had this idea for Old Pond for many years before I actually did the first comic. I thought I couldn’t draw so I put the idea aside. I was hoping one day I would meet an artist or a graphic designer that could draw it for me. One day, I discovered a simple drawing program on my computer. I tried to see if I could draw a frog, just for fun, and the first Old Pond comic was born! It was published a few months later in Gong, in 2008. A couple of years ago, I learned Adobe Illustrator, which is what I use to draw the comic today.

Publications

Today, Old Pond Comics appears regularly in the journals Frogpond (Haiku Society of America) and Gong (Association Francophone de Haïku). It was featured in the book Lighting the Global Lantern: a teacher’s guide to writing haiku and related literary forms written by Haiku Canada president Terry Ann Carter. Since April 2013, the comic has been published monthly in The Bulletin: a journal of Japanese Canadian community, history + culture, distributed in all Japanese cultural centres in Canada.

What’s Next

I created Old Pond Comics to share my passion for haiku. I was really excited when a teacher told me she was using my comics to teach haiku to her students. The goal of Old Pond Comics is to educate and entertain (hopefully, both at the same time).

In August 2013, I’ll be the official cartoonist-in-residence during Haiku North America in Long Beach, California, drawing cartoons live during the event and presenting them on the last day of the conference.

I plan to take Japanese lessons this Fall and will write comics about it. Master Kawazu will ask Kaeru, who only speaks Amphibian, to learn Japanese to better understand the essence of Japanese haiku. I’m a visual learner, and the comics will help me memorize the Japanese words.

One of the rules I live by is that you can’t be afraid to innovate and try new things. On my next poetry reading, I will try haiku slam or do an interactive reading using origami. I’d rather try and fail, then not have tried and live with regrets. Good things happen when you take chances.

Visit Old Pond Comics (http://www.oldpondcomics.com) to follow the adventures of Master Kawazu and his apprentice Kaeru.

Connect with Old Pond Comics on Facebook (www.facebook.com/oldpondcomics) and Twitter @oldpondcomics.

Follow the blog at http://oldpondcomics.wordpress.com