A Brief Love Letter to Kate Beaton & Her Work

I have a tendency, like many others, to not only admire a person for his or her work, but also to unabashedly want their life. And if I had to choose one such an artist at this VERY moment (you did ask, right?) it would be Kate Beaton.

Hilarious, modest, talented, and observant, Beaton creates web comics (and printed comics, check out her first collection Hark! A Vagrant here) about history and historical figures for an increasingly fascinated internet audience. And in a Wikipedian age of doubtful information, Beaton's work is remarkably well-researched (she has a BA in History) so we're getting some fine academic rigour along with her grounded sense of humour.

Beaton should also be commended for her work in spreading the word about Canadian history. Long derided for our lack of exciting battles or historical characters, Canada has actually had an intense and bloody history populated with heroes, "new" kinds of heroes, would-be unifiers, determined progressives, inventors and leaders of revolutions. And those are just the famous ones; Beaton digs deeper to find Canadians of whom we should not only know, but also be proud. Haven't heard of Stan Rogers? NO MORE EXCUSES.

The other great thing about Kate? Her affection for her East Coast clan, as regularly shown in quickly drawn comics shared on her Twitter feed. Seeing a Canadian artist describe a distinctly Canadian way of life to a largely international audience is, well...awesome, for lack of a better term.

So thanks, Kate, for sharing your voice, and thanks for helping me get through my own sometimes-frustrating academic times by making me laugh out loud with a weird joke about Robert Peary.

P.S. Check out Kate's interview from CBC's Q below if you fancy, it's good. Ohhhhh Canaadaaaa....