Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant comic strip is a breath of fresh air, an intake of historical and literary intrigue and drama, a series of pictures that pokes fun at the great men and women of history and art and allows us to muse over their very real foibles, stupidity and banality.
Part history lesson, part literary criticism these simple drawings have tapped into a entire generation of people who delight in the sillier thoughts of kings, queens and literary and artistic characters that have tripped through the ages. No one is spared, everyone is put to her sword and millions are grateful for her erudite comic strips that have appeared in ink over the last decade.
Beaton’s success is a wonderful example of how the internet allows everyone the opportunity to self publish, to get their work out into the wider public arena. She began posting up her comics online in 2007 and after garnering much attention she came up with a name for her strip, opened an online store to promote it and began producing print anthologies starting with ‘Never Learn Anything From History’ in 2010. Recently the independent comic publishers, Drawn And Quarterly, released ‘Hark! A Vagrant’ which is named after her website.
Comic art is a great medium, it can be biting, satirical, moving and completely silly and that is it’s beauty. Artists like Kate Beaton are the reason we should all take a pen to our thoughts and ideas. There is no great technique in these cartoons, they are simplicity itself yet her humour, pathos, timing and confidence are what makes her work so popular. It sings off the page. It also helps to be a student of history.