‘Old Pond’ Haiku Comics are Both Playful and Instructive

Canadian cartoonist Jessica Tremblay, creator of Old Pond Comics, takes an inside-out view of haiku comics. While many of her (mostly) 3-panel strips are comics about the art of creating haiku (pedagogy) or inside jokes for haiku enthusiasts, she also offers her takes on haiku of the Japanese masters, to which she adds perfect punchlines.

Her approach is very much like a serial comic strip that runs in daily newspapers. Storylines continue comic to comic, and there are recurring characters. One of the main characters is a frog, inspired (like the title of her comics) by Basho’s famous haiku: old pond / a frog jumps in / the sound of water. (See AHOPC #33 for other comics interpretations of that haiku.)

In addition to Basho, she’s interpretted the work of Chiyo-ni, Chora, Issa, Shiki and other well-known Japanese haiku masters. Here’s a sampling of her work that illustrates her approach to haiku comics:

Tremblay’s comic books are available for free as PDF downloads. Check them out here.

TIMELINE: 2010s

Warning: This incomplete history maps my journey as a poet learning about comics and doesn’t follow a strict chronological order.