We have seen a TV series on English teachers in Japan and now we have this, a graphic novel depicting the story of an ALT (assistant language teacher) living a small town in the Japanese countryside.

Produced by American comic publisher Top Shelf Productions (the publishing house behind classics such as Essex Country and From Hell) and financed by the Xeric Foundation – a non-profit group that supports new writers from the US and Canada – the comic has already garnered some great reviews (this one on BoingBoing being one example).

The book is written by Lars Martinson and features some amazing production values together with its layered and cross-cultural storyline, which runs thus:

“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.”

Lars Martinson previously worked as an ALT on the government-sponsored “JET Program” (Japanese Exchange and Teaching), so there are plenty of his own, realistic, experiences in the story as well as the flights of fancy that make comics a great medium.

Lars has a brilliant write up on the development of the book over on his own blog. You can pick up a copy at Amazon.com.