Hark! A Duck
September 13, 2022 7:30 PM Subscribe
Cape Breton comics artist Kate Beaton, best known for Hark! a Vagrant has a new book relaesed today, Ducks, based on her time working in the Alberta tar sands industry. Reviews are good, from NY Times (gift link), the Narwhal, The Guardian, Wired, Quill and Quire. There is an eight page PDF excerpt here and a lengthy video from today of Beaton launching/discussing her new book. An early glimpse from 2014 of Ducks, on Metafilter with good discussion. Mefi-affiliate Amazon link.
That's national treasure Kate Beaton, I believe.
Also a good profile of Kate Beaton in Vulture, which includes a couple of quotes from an interview with Lynda Barry about Ducks:
“That book is a masterwork,” cartoonist Lynda Barry tells me. Over a Zoom call, as Barry grows more and more animated in her praise of the book, she eventually throws up her hands, overcome. “There’s nobody like her.”.... “She gives such a fair shake to everybody in this book,” Barry says, “including the most awful people. How?! How did she do that?”
posted by Superilla at 7:46 PM on September 13, 2022 [10 favorites]
Also a good profile of Kate Beaton in Vulture, which includes a couple of quotes from an interview with Lynda Barry about Ducks:
“That book is a masterwork,” cartoonist Lynda Barry tells me. Over a Zoom call, as Barry grows more and more animated in her praise of the book, she eventually throws up her hands, overcome. “There’s nobody like her.”.... “She gives such a fair shake to everybody in this book,” Barry says, “including the most awful people. How?! How did she do that?”
posted by Superilla at 7:46 PM on September 13, 2022 [10 favorites]
This is so exciting! I was so sad when she stopped work in Hark! A Vagrant. I will seek this out to purchase.
posted by gryphonlover at 8:19 PM on September 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by gryphonlover at 8:19 PM on September 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
International treasure Kate Beaton.
Off to purchase, as well.
posted by Jubal Kessler at 8:27 PM on September 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
Off to purchase, as well.
posted by Jubal Kessler at 8:27 PM on September 13, 2022 [2 favorites]
just finished the book and i found it tremendously moving. always always been a huge fan
posted by rosary at 8:42 PM on September 13, 2022
posted by rosary at 8:42 PM on September 13, 2022
Ahhh wow i will be adding this to my christmas list ! On book buying ban otherwise I would pick it up right away. Thank you for posting!
posted by bxvr at 8:49 PM on September 13, 2022
posted by bxvr at 8:49 PM on September 13, 2022
I scanned the NYT headline this morning about “Alberta tar sands” and my sensors immediately pinged, Kate Beaton?? She and Allie Brosh fill similar slots in my mind, where I immediately trust in the quality of any reflection they make because they have been through it and have somehow survived. I own a Fat Pony ceramic from ages ago and still routinely pull up her Hark! A Vagrant comics in my classes to show students. But the ducks comics have stayed with me for so long that of course that would be the title piece for the book, while also promising so much more richness within. Beaton is a treasure, and I’m so happy to see her emerge again in this manner.
posted by lilac girl at 8:51 PM on September 13, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by lilac girl at 8:51 PM on September 13, 2022 [6 favorites]
I recommend her Patreon if you’re missing random moment Kate Beaton comics. But I should warn you, her comics in general have gotten a bit sadder since her Hark A Vagrant days.
I loved the original comic she posted that eventually grew to become Ducks. I can wait to read it.
posted by sleeping bear at 9:09 PM on September 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
I loved the original comic she posted that eventually grew to become Ducks. I can wait to read it.
posted by sleeping bear at 9:09 PM on September 13, 2022 [3 favorites]
But I should warn you, her comics in general have gotten a bit sadder since her Hark A Vagrant days.
Given she's been working on this, I'm not surprised.
Looking forward to it!
posted by Merus at 10:04 PM on September 13, 2022
Given she's been working on this, I'm not surprised.
Looking forward to it!
posted by Merus at 10:04 PM on September 13, 2022
Got my copy today, from an Amazon pre-order. It's been a while since I read the preview which made me sad, and just from reading the first few pages I can tell it's going to be a ride. I'm a fifty year old grown-ass man and I couldn't explain to my wife why I was choked up from reading a comic book. I grew up in that vague area (northern BC/Alberta) and while it had its moments, I'm sure Cape Breton is a far more pleasant place to live and it's an embarrassment that this sort of economic displacement is just the way things are.
I was never proud that Canada tends not to invest in its gifted and talented in favor of quick bucks from resources, and in this case we basically fed one of our most gifted and talented into this pointless and doomed industry.
posted by Tad Naff at 10:39 PM on September 13, 2022 [5 favorites]
I was never proud that Canada tends not to invest in its gifted and talented in favor of quick bucks from resources, and in this case we basically fed one of our most gifted and talented into this pointless and doomed industry.
posted by Tad Naff at 10:39 PM on September 13, 2022 [5 favorites]
Given she's been working on this, I'm not surprised.
I think it's more events in her family. Her sister suffered and died from cancer a few years ago. Someone up thread mentioned Allie Brosh and I believe she also lost her sister a few years ago, different circumstances. I'm not sure how anyone recovers, if they ever do, from living through such events. Both their work has taken much more melancholy and reflective turns since then (though with Brosh there were a lot of other difficulties too).
posted by humuhumu at 12:00 AM on September 14, 2022 [5 favorites]
I think it's more events in her family. Her sister suffered and died from cancer a few years ago. Someone up thread mentioned Allie Brosh and I believe she also lost her sister a few years ago, different circumstances. I'm not sure how anyone recovers, if they ever do, from living through such events. Both their work has taken much more melancholy and reflective turns since then (though with Brosh there were a lot of other difficulties too).
posted by humuhumu at 12:00 AM on September 14, 2022 [5 favorites]
Instantly ordered. I'm prepared to cry. I think I already know why it's called Ducks.
posted by sixohsix at 12:29 AM on September 14, 2022
posted by sixohsix at 12:29 AM on September 14, 2022
Loved the comic. Excited for the book.
We need more media that exposes the horror of the tar sands. I really don't think the reality of what is being done out there has sunk in for people, and we're still constantly bombarded by propaganda that calls canadian oil "ethical", as if that was possible. Beaton is great at handling a fraught topic with grace and nuance.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 2:54 AM on September 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
We need more media that exposes the horror of the tar sands. I really don't think the reality of what is being done out there has sunk in for people, and we're still constantly bombarded by propaganda that calls canadian oil "ethical", as if that was possible. Beaton is great at handling a fraught topic with grace and nuance.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 2:54 AM on September 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
My copy arrived this week! I never preorder books but hit this button so hard and have been anticipating it so long. It is signed!!!
So now I’ve read it one time and it’s simmering in my brain, I will re-read shortly. I’m not sure what to say except that people are also resources, and resource extraction is a massive grinding machine.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 4:33 AM on September 14, 2022
So now I’ve read it one time and it’s simmering in my brain, I will re-read shortly. I’m not sure what to say except that people are also resources, and resource extraction is a massive grinding machine.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 4:33 AM on September 14, 2022
Ooooh, I'll be ordering this in the next few days for sure, from my local bookseller. Thanks for the post!
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:43 AM on September 14, 2022
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:43 AM on September 14, 2022
I loved this book. I pre-ordered it back in March and was so excited when it arrived a tinge early last week (maybe for living close-ish to Drawn & Quarterly?) Had to take pauses to keep from consuming the whole thing in one go and staying up all night in emotional turmoil.
Highly second Kate Beaton's Patreon. There's only one tier, $1.50 US/mo and the content is of course worth many more times that.
posted by kittensyay at 7:59 AM on September 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Highly second Kate Beaton's Patreon. There's only one tier, $1.50 US/mo and the content is of course worth many more times that.
posted by kittensyay at 7:59 AM on September 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
I am really looking forward to reading this, partly because it's Kate Beaton and partly because my little sister will probably be in it (they're friends; she worked with Beaton in the oil sands and actually shows up in the fourth part of the original sketch webcomic linked above, talking about cancer). So that's neat.
posted by mightygodking at 8:26 AM on September 14, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by mightygodking at 8:26 AM on September 14, 2022 [10 favorites]
Insta-ordered this morning, thanks for the reminder. I suspect I'll be buying it for at least four more people lol
p.s. KB gets interviewed by fellow International Treasure Daniel Lavery in this new ep of Big Mood, Little Mood.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 9:37 AM on September 14, 2022
p.s. KB gets interviewed by fellow International Treasure Daniel Lavery in this new ep of Big Mood, Little Mood.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 9:37 AM on September 14, 2022
I'd forgotten I've been waiting for this for years. I'm so excited!
posted by wellifyouinsist at 10:18 AM on September 14, 2022
posted by wellifyouinsist at 10:18 AM on September 14, 2022
Having read the older Ducks comic I thought I was ready but I wasn't, it goes from melancholic to absolutely heartbreaking at times.
posted by simmering octagon at 10:49 AM on September 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by simmering octagon at 10:49 AM on September 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
"Got my copy today, from an Amazon pre-order."
Pre-ordered back in March, and they're saying it won't come for a couple weeks yet. BOOOOOO! HISSSSSSS!
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:50 AM on September 14, 2022
Pre-ordered back in March, and they're saying it won't come for a couple weeks yet. BOOOOOO! HISSSSSSS!
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:50 AM on September 14, 2022
Comic books are one of the things I'm willing to both pay more and wait for by buying them at a local shop instead of a large online retailer like Amazon or Indigo. My local shop only really sells superhero stuff and manga but I'll be going downtown this weekend for other reasons and there are a couple of comic shops I ought to be able to get it from (along with the latest Nick Drnaso book).
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:23 AM on September 14, 2022
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:23 AM on September 14, 2022
Speaking of long anticipated comic books, has there been any news on Lucy Knisley's book about her late cat Linney?
posted by acb at 11:46 AM on September 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by acb at 11:46 AM on September 14, 2022 [2 favorites]
Boughtened! Thanks for the heads up, rumple. I had no idea about this, but I love Kate Beaton's work and I'm excited about this in all ways.
posted by heyitsgogi at 1:13 PM on September 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by heyitsgogi at 1:13 PM on September 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
Hold: placed!
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:37 PM on September 14, 2022
posted by The corpse in the library at 5:37 PM on September 14, 2022
Orion magazine has a good interview with Beaton: Well, after I had comics in my life, working in the camps got easier, because I had this thing that was just for me. Before I had that, I lost myself; it was just work work work and people chipping away at you in a certain way. Then I had comics and I’d go home to my little camp room after work and draw them and put them online—and here I was in a work camp in the oil sands, very alone in many ways, and I was connecting to people who saw me for who I was, through my work. I felt like myself.
Another good review from The Walrus: “First Nation people’s lives pay for the price of the oil they take out of our land here,” says Celina Harpe, an Elder from the nearby Fort McKay First Nation, in a video Beaton watches with a co-worker. In the years that follow, the pollution from the sands is shown to increase the risk of cancer in nearby First Nations.
“This is us, too,” Beaton says to a colleague. “We’re not the president of Shell, but we’re here.”
And more from The Comics Journal: On her way to a better paying job at an OPTI-Nexen camp, where workers stay 24/7, Kate’s Somali taxi driver tells her: “You be careful, young girl. You live here, they don’t. Do you know how people treat a place where they don’t live?”
posted by Rumple at 2:32 PM on September 18, 2022
Another good review from The Walrus: “First Nation people’s lives pay for the price of the oil they take out of our land here,” says Celina Harpe, an Elder from the nearby Fort McKay First Nation, in a video Beaton watches with a co-worker. In the years that follow, the pollution from the sands is shown to increase the risk of cancer in nearby First Nations.
“This is us, too,” Beaton says to a colleague. “We’re not the president of Shell, but we’re here.”
And more from The Comics Journal: On her way to a better paying job at an OPTI-Nexen camp, where workers stay 24/7, Kate’s Somali taxi driver tells her: “You be careful, young girl. You live here, they don’t. Do you know how people treat a place where they don’t live?”
posted by Rumple at 2:32 PM on September 18, 2022
I was able to pick this up on Saturday and am a bit more than half way through, there are some really gripping scenes in it. Money jail is a great description.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:13 AM on September 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:13 AM on September 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
Got my copy yesterday; finished reading it in one sitting today. Her storytelling skills are incredible. Gripping, funny, devastating... and yet unwilling to paint everything in black and white, choosing the harder road of grey uncertainty, paradox, humanity. A wonderful, terrible work.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 11:12 AM on September 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 11:12 AM on September 25, 2022 [2 favorites]
« Older Once More, With Feeling (Rage) | A Weapon That's Equal Parts Terrifying and... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Paragon at 7:41 PM on September 13, 2022 [10 favorites]