Following in the footsteps of Chester Brown’s Louis Riel biography, NSCAD alum Kerry Byrne tells the story of Lillian Alling, a
young Russian immigrant seamstress living in New York who decides to
return to Russia by walking across the Bering Strait. Alling’s story is
captivating and beautifully retold by Byrne. Her journey begins in the
city, where crowded tenements and a fire at the garment factory where
she works drive Alling to return to Russia. Lacking the money for a
ship passage, Alling maps out a route by road and foot through Canada,
spending time in Vancouver and the Yukon. Alling’s trail was eventually
lost, deep in the north. Illustrated with detailed linework, with
lovely watercolours and Russian folk motifs filling in spaces, Byrne’s
book is a worthy addition to a new canon of Canadian graphic novels.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.