I’m not going to even pretend to journalistic objectivity here: I think Kate Beaton’s work is fantastic. She has gained internet renown relatively recently, and you are most likely have seen her fantastic webcomics at her website, or her livejournal. She’s probably best known for her history comics, where humanity’s ridiculous, wonderful past is neatly skewered in six panels, but there is so much more to her work. Enjoy!
So, did someone honestly send an email saying you were pretty funny for a girl?
KB: Not in those words exactly. I used to get some emails saying that it was unusual for humor to come from a girl, or implied that. They really did mean it as a compliment, I just don’t think they knew what they were sounding like.
What is it like to be suddenly internet famous?
KB: I’m not really sure! I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone. I am the person who sees the most of the attention directed at me, because of emails and comments, so it’s hard to know what anyone else has taken note of. I don’t have a traffic counter or anything on my website and I think I’d prefer it that way.
That being said, I understand that I have become relatively well known as a webcomic artist in a short amount of time. I’m not certain what to attribute this to.
Awesomeness?
KB: Dang, I wish it was that. I’m not sure! But it is welcome in any case. I had no idea anything I made would be so well received, and for the most part, people who read and write to me are so delightful. I’m bad at answering letters though!
The thing is, I would have been doing this anyway. Maybe not so much on a large scale but I would be making comics; I have been for a long time
You’re probably best known for your history comics. What’s your favourite period of history?
KB: Good question! When I took my major, most people specialized Canadian history, British, Asian what have you. This was probably a good idea. I didn’t do it. I was interested in all of it so I took a lot of courses that were all over the place, and had an Anthropology major besides, which was similarly non-specific.
So I don’t know if I have a favorite time period. Although if you look through the comics, and some people have noticed this, there are a lot of scenes in and around the Regency period. They are pretty fun to draw.
Did you watch Blackadder the Third as a kid?
KB: No! I have seen one episode of Blackadder a few years ago.
Damnit, here I was thinking I had hit the perfect influence.
KB: Hah! Nope. People list my influences for me a lot. I get a lot of ‘this looks like Quentin Blake’. I get a lot of comparisons to other webcartoonists like John Allison or KC Green It’s all pretty flattering, but I can’t even tell you what my influences are. There is so much talent out there.
History, especially the history of the Western world, is largely perceived to be the domain of white men. Do you feel any responsibility to correct this bias in your work?
KB: Not responsibility. Most of the history comics so far are topics that I didn’t choose. I asked readers on two separate occasions to submit topics and I took the first 20 each time. It’s a bit of a challenge, but I also enjoy the topics they choose! They are a sharp lot.
But then, when I am making comics on my own, I tend to go for a lot of obscure figures who I personally think are interesting and deserve a bit of attention. History now is increasingly being written for the people who were once left out of it, which is excellent. I’m glad when I can bring something to light for one of those people.
When you are talking about comics that include figures that everyone is going to ‘get’ though, you are talking about a lot of old white dudes. That’s okay too because they are easier to poke fun at.
I am realizing in making comics the lack of knowledge I have of very many things. I say that I took courses all over the place in university, but it was a tiny university, so really I was still rather restricted, and I gravitate towards countries and figures I know a lot about, so you see a lot of British and Canadian figures.
As it happens, I live in Melbourne, and there are Monash buildings all over the place, but I had no idea who this Monash guy was until you did that comic.
KB: He was such a neat guy. Really impressive.
If anything I like very much that doing history comics is driving me to learn again, since I have been out of school for a while. It’s easy to fall in a rut of not reading, which is something I would normally like to be doing all the time. And I’d say the greatest pleasure is when people tell me that something I have made inspired them to look into it and read about it themselves. Sometimes you have to do that to get the joke but still.
You’ve said that your history comics take days of thought, followed by a quick production process. Is that true of your nonsense comics?
KB: Oh! Sometimes the history ones take days of thought. A lot of times they don’t. It is different for every one. And by days of thought I mean I think of something and let it sit back there until something hits.
The comics in the nonsense section take about a half a minute. I have to say, if there is one thing I am very pleased to be able to do it is writing and drawing something that will make people laugh.
What are your plans for the future of Kate Beaton comics? Merchandise? A Jane Austen biocomic? Finding a name for the site?
KB: Probably finding a name for the site. When I began, it didn’t matter that the website I built wasn’t very good as nobody knew who I was. Things happened fast: I had a website and then I had a lot of people reading it. What are you supposed to do with that?
It all happened just after I moved to Alberta to finish off my student loan payments. During this time I have had very little time to myself, so I haven’t really sat down and made a plan. But I will do that in the coming months, as I am moving to Toronto at the end of the summer.
As for what will happen, your guess is as good as mine. I guess the regular route for webcomics is to sell things and to fix an update schedule and hope for the best. I don’t think I would perform well with a forced update, though I won’t stop making comics.
Herodotus vs Thucydides. Naked oily wrestling cage match. Who walks out?
KB: For some reason I imagine Thucydides being the angrier one so my money is on him. He slammed Herodotus in writing. He’d probably want a piece.
