Kate Beaton’s drawing lessons

Sitting in Uncommon Grounds on Argyle, she is hunkered over a
new comic about Simón Bolívar and Antonio José de
Sucre. Her brown eyes are hidden behind her brown hair as she inks in
her pencil drawings of the “celebrated liberator of South America” and
his right-hand man.

Kate Beaton’s comic, Hark! A Vagrant, covers such topics as
Sanford Fleming’s magnificent beard, Nikola Tesla’s celibacy and
Napoleon Bonaparte’s tendency to eat all the cookies. You know.
History.

“My comic could be called Prime Ministers, Generals and Some
Other People,” Beaton says.

She has a readership of between “40,000 and 60,000” she’s been
covered by Maclean’s and Wired; and she’s won the Doug
Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent. She’s 25, and has just moved
back from Toronto. Originally from Mabou, Beaton’s childhood emphasized
history.

“You’re put in step dancing when you’re really small…and you’re
like, ‘Well, why am I doing this?’ ‘Well, it’s important. It’s part of
your heritage.'”

She earned her degree in history and anthropology at Mount Allison
University, and she’s worked in a number of museums. But when people
ask her why Beaton likes history, she finds it difficult to
answer. “I like it the same way that people like chocolate ice cream: I
like it. It’s good.”

She has also always drawn, but didn’t have the confidence to apply
to fine arts in university: “Good old Maritimes defeatist attitude.
Stephen Harper would be proud.” But after being encouraged by Emily
Horne (of former Coast comic A Softer World) to put her comics
online, success was sudden.

The site launched in October of 2007 and now, writing the webcomic
is Beaton’s full-time job. She moved back to Nova Scotia to be closer
to her family, but also because she thought she’d be able to afford
Halifax easier than Toronto. Beaton makes her living selling t-shirts,
books and other merchandise on her site. She says there’s some worry
involved, because she’s not sure how much she’ll make each week, but
there’s also a lot of freedom in it.

“And, I mean, getting to do what you like is unbelievable,” Beaton
says. She also sells merchandise when she appears at comic conventions,
such as the upcoming Comix and Stories in Vancouver on August 23. But
she hasn’t quite gotten the hang of dealing with fans.

“I don’t think anybody is prepared for a big lineup of people, like,
‘I’m really pleased to meet you! Oh, I love your comic! Oh my god, it’s
Kate Beaton!’…When people are excited to meet you, you want to make
sure that they are happy that they did, afterward, you know? Instead of
being like, ‘She was sweating. And she was all red. Then she ran
away.'”

Agents and book companies have asked her to write and illustrate
books, but so far she’s turned them down. “I’m really aware of my
limits… I’m glad that people like what they see, but I’ll know when
I’m there, and I’m not there yet.”

Her plans for the future are to just keep doing what she’s doing,
but “it’d be nice to get involved with the community and find some
volunteer [job], since cartooning is a fairly lonely thing…I don’t
know. I’m not sure. I just got here, but I plan to do things. That’s a
really boring answer. I plan, I’ve got plans.”

Kate Beaton Comic Samples

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This article appears in Aug 20-26, 2009.