Hark! A Vagrant [Hardcover]
- Author by Beaton, Kate
From Publisher
A NEW COLLECTION BY THE WEB SENSATION AND "NEW YORKER" CARTOONIST
"Hark! A Vagrant" takes readers on a romp through history and literature--with dignity for few and cookies for all--with comic strips about famous authors, their characters, and political and historical figures, all drawn in Kate Beaton's pared-down, excitable style. This collection features favorite stories as well as new, previously unpublished content. Whether she's writing about Nikola Tesla, Napoleon, or Nancy Drew, Beaton brings a refined sense of the absurd to every situation.
In just four years, Beaton has taken the comics world by storm with her non sequiturs, cheeky comebacks, and irreverent punch lines. With 1.2 million monthly hits on her site--500,000 of them unique--and comics appearing in "Harper's Magazine," the "National Post," and "The New Yorker," her caricatures of historical and fictional figures filtered through a contemporary lens display a sharp, quick wit that knows no bounds.
Reviews
- From Publishers Weekly
- Recent comics sensation Beaton probably, definitely, knows more about history and literature than the average reader, and this collection of her webcomicmostly collections of three-panel gagshows it. But while her comics are pungent with the aroma of authentic knowledge, they wear it lightly, with a jittery humor thats surprisingly effective given the lashings of irony that Beaton layers on top. While shes perfectly content to base her cartoon strips around lesser-known figures (criminal masterminds Burke and Hare, anyone?), most of her cartoons put people like the Brontë sisters or Jules Verne out there and wryly undercut them with mock pulp headlines and dishy asides. While the focus in Beatons rip-quick and squiggly drawings is getting a good joke out of, say, the death of French general Montcalm or playing to the worlds ignorance of even the most basic facets of Canadian history and culture, she also drops in some sharp literary criticism. If she had pushed her faux naïf outrageousness any further, Beaton might have ventured too far into Sarah Vowellesque flipness. But this is that rarest combination of literate irony and devastatingly funny humorwhen was the last time you read a comic strip collection that not only has but needs an index? (Nov.) Copyright 2011 Reed Business Information.
- From Booklist
- Beaton's erudite, anachronistic webcomic gag strips have become something of a sensation over the past five years. With targets from literature (Dude Watchin' with the Bront's; The Adventures of Sexy Batman) and history (Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, anyone?), her humor is an exercise in both feeling smart and appreciating a well-timed poop joke. With hilarious economy, she's able to sum up the entirety of something like Crime and Punishment and then summarily deflate it in a handful of strips, if not words (Porfiry is tipped off by Raskolnikov's article, Murdering Old Ladies: Not Even a Big Deal). And while the artwork has a kind of effortless, dashed-off quality to it, don't be fooled: the precisely rendered figures and facial expressions are often just as crucial to delivering the punch lines as the jokes themselves. If you didn't know there was much funny stuff in Kierkegaard, Kepler, or King Lear, think again. Better yet, let Beaton show you.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
Quote Reviews
- Praise for Kate Beaton:
"[Beaton's comics] are witty reinventions of literary and historical figures navigating modern times . . . A high-minded version of "The Far Side "that is at once of-the-moment and timeless." --DEBORAH VANKIN, "Los Angeles Times
""Simply put, this is the most well-drawn, funniest comic that I've read in a while." --ADRIENNE SO, "Wired
""[Beaton's] neat linework and terrific grasp of simple caricature and facial expression sells a lot of the best strips, including Sasaki Kojiro meeting an undignified end, Jane Austen and Nikola Tesla being pestered by their fans, and Lord Byron muttering "Bitches, man" to a grieving Percy Bysshe Shelley. A-" --"The Onion, "The A.V. Club
