Funny Business | Kirkus Reviews →
Getting so close to King Baby! Paired here with Vera Brosgol’s Leave Me Alone at Kirkus reviews! I love Vera’s book so much, I am so happy!
Newfoundland at Armageddon - CBC Documentaries →
This documentary.
I got to listen to the excellent Michael Winter talk about his book on the topic this past Canada Day, at a literary event in Margaree. Many days later the image he quoted in it’s title, Into the Blizzard, doesn’t leave my mind: a man who was there describing these Newfoundland soldiers walking into a wall of gunfire at the Somme the same way they walked headlong into and through a icy blizzard back home. Forward with a shoulder ahead, tucking the chin of their face into it, and pushing through. Being from another province, sometimes we don’t think about just what it means to say that Newfoundland didn’t join Canada until 1949. This story, this story.
It’s true! Roll out the red carpet!
More info here about my books and comics, and where we are at right now.
xoxo kate
(Source: harkavagrant.com)
We’ll get back to Mary Anning later.
Is Kelis’ milkshake song a gift to humanity, or what?
“Specialization isn’t just key to evolution—it can help bring new focus to your work and encourage readers to learn from (and share!) your enthusiasm. In this panel from the 2016 Toronto Comic Arts Festival, join Lucy Bellwood/@lucybellwood (Baggywrinkles: a Lubber’s Guide to Life at Sea), Erika Moen/@erikamoen (Oh Joy, Sex Toy), Lisa Hanawalt/@lisahanawalt (Hot Dog Taste Test, BoJack Horseman), and Kate Beaton/@beatonna (Hark, A Vagrant) as they discuss the benefits and perils of “having a niche” in comics.”
gabbin’ comix
Why This Famous Cartoonist Moved to a Secluded Canadian Island | VICE | Canada →
A little interview with Vice about moving and projects on the horizon and things! We did it on the phone so there are a few things i think -
Is Cape Breton a secluded island? I guess it is pretty far away from everything. Anyway, camps would have maybe 2000 people, not 50000. And we were talking the day after the Fort McMurray fire started, which coloured the tone of the discussion. I mentioned on the phone that in recent times, there had been more true to life news reports from the oil fields, but years ago, there weren’t many. And I really dated myself as old as shit by referencing Pitchfork! Pretty cool.
Download Fat Pony for Stardew Valley!
(click for bigger if it’s small)
I had a lot of fun with this on twitter, so I just kept on going with it. But you know, I’m always kind of touched by how strongly fans support their favourite characters, and there is a lot of love for Cloak and Dagger, and you can see why because there are some pretty great things about that pair. But that costume, come on, it’s a big old slice of tit window pie. They don’t always dress Dagger like that, but yeah they mostly do! But they probably won’t on the tv show!
I didn’t dwell on Cloak very much in a comic about tit windows, but, here’s something. I tweeted this essay a while ago when I read it, but Cloak’s lack of a body really brought it to mind again, and you should totally read it, though mostly it is about the character Cyborg, it is relevant here too:
Humanity Not Included: DC’s Cyborg and the Mechanization of the Black Body by Robert Jones, Jr.
New readers guide is up
I spent much of this weekend trying to make the poor Scary Go Round site easier to navigate. It has so many bolted-on bits and miniseries that getting around it had become a chore. I’m still tidying up, but it’s a lot better, I think. Most importantly, there’s a new readers’ guide that features a complete timeline at the bottom, showing how all the stories fit together - something I’ve been asked for a lot recently.
freaky-713 asked: So like what is even going on in the last comic I'm so confused Is this Scott Pilgrim now What even
I wanna talk about an unfortunate thing I think the internet has done for art. With the instant gratification of instant delivery, we’ve seen an accelerated desire to discuss, be satisfied and move on from it. The result is a lot of contact like this: people who write to me directly - immediately - asking for an explanation of my work.
There’s a lot of collected thought that goes into art. Experience, meditation, desire. And any artist worth a damn has more than 1 thought to express on any given page. Certainly it’s possible an artist has nothing to say and just wants to shock or confuse you - and you’re welcome to think that about me or anyone you’d like - but even then, I believe there’s something to unearth from it. Why did the artist make those decisions? Did they achieve what they set out to do? What feeling does it give you? If you walk away and come back days or months or years later, do you interpret it any differently?
While some material is easier to enjoy at face value than others, good art will always offer more below the surface. This is a beautiful thing we do as humans. We warp reality to get to the bottom of it. We say things through music and the canvas and the written word that can’t be communicated any other way. We produce images and sounds simply because they’ve never been seen or heard. We make sense of life by comparing it to the art of the past. And then we die, hopefully offering something of value to future humans.
Art gives us things we don’t expect. And it’s a shame that we have the impulse to categorize those things immediately, denying ourselves that bit of discovery. Scott Pilgrim didn’t explode onto the scene as a new version of its many influences. It could only have been made by one person, with their particular skillset and worldview, at a crucial moment in time.
I hope this answers What even
I love Mer’s thoughtful words here. Not every parcelled fragment offered of a body of work needs to show all of its colours, reasons, and message, though it’s tempting to want those things sometimes. Maybe you are rewarded with a definitive opinion for a day, but you are robbed of building a larger picture, theirs and yours. The internet reassembled many of the ways we look at art, but if you’re making it, the way that you wish to say what you want to say still matters.
Today’s WARRIOR WOMEN WEDNESDAY drawing:
THE FERNIG SISTERSOn April 30, 1793, the French Revolutionary Government’s National Convention passed the Law to Rid the Armies of Useless Women, barring women from the military. The Fernigs had, probably coincidentally, escaped this decree by mere days, having followed orders to accompany General Dumouriez. Discovering too late that he was not under orders himself but was, in, fact, defecting to the Austrians, the Fernigs fled to return to their role as soldiers for the French, but were seen as fellow traitors and refused entry.
Some women continued to fight after the law was passed, but whether the Fernigs would have been among them is a purely academic question as they were barred from their homeland for much of the war.
(via benito-cereno)
The Princess and the Pony is now available in paperback and hardcover! <333
I wouldn’t say these two follow the rules of medieval society exactly, but they are my favourite pair of dirty peasants, supposing they wouldn’t even call themselves that. And at least in reality they would have lived in a time without the cursed plague of KEEP CALM. A better time.
Today’s book recommendation is Ian Mortimer’s classic The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England. It’s so good! And if you think you don’t like reading history, this one will make you think again, it’s so entertaining and engaging.
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