The Fabler

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming

Kate Beaton is in the business of making history funny.

Well – history, MS Paint, mermaids, her younger self, and a handful of beloved fictional characters. (Among other things.)

Kate is the creator/writer/illustrator of Hark! A Vagrant, a webcomic series that caters to those with a more… shall we say… refined taste in cartooning.

If you haven’t heard of Hark! A Vagrant, not only are you missing out on something ridiculously awesome, but you’re fast becoming part of a dwindling minority. Hark! A Vagrant has been making waves in webcomics since its debut back in 2007, earning much-deserved praise from news sources as diverse as Maclean’s, Wired, Comic Book Resources, and (most recently) Halifax weekly newspaper The Coast.

As the above comic would suggest, Beaton’s trademark style of humour largely involves pitting well-known characters from history and fiction into unlikely and almost always snicker-worthy situations.

Armed with a history degree herself (earned at New Brunswick’s Mount Allison University) as well as a sharp, sardonic wit and a knack for finding the silliness in pretty well anything, Beaton draws comics that anyone could find entertaining.

Her comics are also rich with Canadian content;  many of the historical figures who cameo in Hark! A Vagrant are borrowed from the annals of the Great White North – a fact that, surprisingly, doesn’t adversely affect her American readership at all.

Beaton’s familiarity with Canadian identity goes significantly beyond what she’s learned from history books. The self-identified Maritimer has lived in five provinces across the nation – she grew up in Nova Scotia, went to school in New Brunswick, worked in both Alberta and BC, and drew her webcomic full time in Ontario.

She recently moved back from Ontario to Halifax, where she’s presently working an administrative job in a museum  in addition to keeping her comic regularly updated.

Kate caught up with The Fabler Blog from her home in Halifax to chat about her early inspirations, how success has changed her life, and what she did to make her grade 6 teacher cry.

The interview is below:

KD: Hi Kate! So, you’re back in Halifax, working at a museum again – what can you tell me about the new job?

KB: Well,  I wanted to take something on because I’d been doing just cartooning for over a year and there comes a point where you miss the routine of having a regular job where somebody sets your hours and you have something to set your watch by. And also a workplace where you can talk to other people – to feel like you’re part of the real world, I suppose.

KD: As I understand it, you’ve been doing comics for a long time now – since substantially farther back than when you first started publishing Hark! A Vagrant online back in 2007.

What was the earliest comic you can remember drawing?

KB: When we were in grade 6, a friend and I drew comics about our teacher and made her cry. They were pretty mean. Well, they were made by someone in grade six, so they were idiotic for one thing, but also probably unnecessarily cruel. When you don’t know how to tell a joke yet you just call someone stupid and belittle them in a way that’s really base because that’s all you know.

We would draw her like, farting, or things like that. Solid gold elementary school.

KD: What kind of comics did you read, growing up?

KB: We only had newspaper comics, so Calvin and Hobbes, Foxtrot, that sort of thing. The library had older Peanuts and Garfield collections, which were actually pretty funny.

KD: Addressing Hark! A Vagrant more directly, I’d guess one of the reasons behind how popular it’s gotten is just how creative and original the content is.

Take, for example, your historical comics – a lot of people wouldn’t have seen a comic that puts that kind of spin on history before.

What do you think it is that appeals to people about a webcomic that mixes history and humour?

KB: Well, I’m certainly not the first to mix history and humour. Things like Black Adder and Larry Gonick’s A Cartoon History of the Universe have been around for a really long time.

I think that people who like history definitely get something extra out of reading the history comics. It’s almost like an in-joke, how it can be rewarding when there’s something that speaks to you and what you’re especially interested in.

Then there’s a lot of people who tell me, “I don’t get all of the references, but I like (the comics) anyway”. Sometimes you get people who look it up when they’re not familiar with the subject, and wind up appreciating it more. There are also people who don’t like doing that, and they sometimes don’t like the comic.

I really like doing them, and I think it shows when you enjoy something – I think it comes through to the reader, even if it is a little esoteric.

KD: If you could have your readers take one thing away from your webcomic, what would that one thing be? I guess I could also ask this question as, ‘what is the Kate Beaton agenda?’

KB: (laughs) Well that’s funny, because I never started making comics with a large audience in mind. I started making them for myself and my friends, just because they were something I wanted to do. I just hoped other people would also like them, and that’s all it ever was. I don’t really have an agenda.

KD: What are the biggest ways that you feel your life has changed since finding success with Hark! A Vagrant?

KB: Oh, it’s changed in a lot of ways. I’m not really sure what I would be doing now if I didn’t have the comics thing going on. I planned on going farther with the museum work in the long run, but now I probably won’t because the job opportunities aren’t dazzling. Comics have given me a new trajectory.

Also, I’ve met a lot of amazing people, and like-minded people that are really great pleasures to be around.

I used to draw all the time, and basically quit when I finished University. I started doing it again for fun a few years later, and now that I’m doing it all the time, it really feels comfortable.

KD: Everyone has a vice that they distract themselves with when there’s something they know they should be working on. For some people it’s Twitter, or Wikipedia, while others might turn to gaming as a tool to procrastinate.

Do you have a time-wasting vice of your own?

KB: Oh yeah, sure – the internet. Definitely Wikipedia, but I’m also one of those people who’ll compulsively read through snippets of books on Google Books. Though they don’t let you read more than just the stupid snippets, and it’s really annoying when you just get to the good part and it tells you ‘pages 38-50 are not available in this book preview’.

If I find something interesting in a Google book, I’ll go and look for other resources on the subject. Once you get on a tangent, it’s awful – unless you’re very focused, the internet can be a terrible place for that.

KD: What webcomics by other artists have you been reading lately?

KB: Oh some regulars for sure. Octopus Pie, Anders Loves Maria, A Softer World, Dinosaur Comics, Pictures for Sad Children… I could go on and on – there’s lots. Scott Campbell’s work on Double Fine Action Comics. Oh, and Loyalty and Liberty – a webcomic about the American Revolution starring cats! I think it’s great, because it’s insane. Whoever’s drawing it knows everything about the outfits and puts the right hats on the right people in insane detail, but they’re all cats. Look it up.

For more from Kate Beaton, check out Hark! A Vagrant and Kate’s Livejournal. She also has a book published collecting some of her best comics from 2007 to early 2009 that you can buy from TopatoCo.