If you've never read these columns before, you may not know that I'm a long-time fan of Kate Beaton, a Canadian cartoonist who posts on a frequent basis over on her livejournal page
Hark! A Vagrant. Like most of Beaton's fans, I voraciously eat at the trough of whatever strikes her fancy--sometimes it's Canadian history, sometimes it's a heartless strumpet named Maud dismissing the love of Yeats when he delivers "
another faggy poem", and sure, because it's web comics, sometimes it's a random slice-of-life autobiographical piece about
biological clocks. Last month, Beaton released the first official collection of her webcomics in book form. Now, because I'm a good little fan who subscribes to her website, I bought the book about five minutes after she posted about it.
So did a lot of other people. By the time I'd finished the check-out process at TopatoCo, the website that published the collection, I'd already received two more links in my RSS reader where other comics-blogging types mentioned its availability. By the time I got home that evening, I'd seen at least ten more. Two days after the book's release--with no real promotion, no marketing, no in-store deals, nothing more than a bunch of blog-links--this was what Kate posted on her website: "
So the book is sold out, but there are some for TCAF yes, and they are ordering more! So all is well!"
That's pretty impressive. I knew full well that Beaton's comics had a large fanbase--it's safe to assume that I'm the last guy in the world to know about what's going on in the field of webcomics, so if I've heard of it, rest assured, it must be popular. But to see that kind of response? For someone posting black and white comics--many of them referencing people, places and things that are solidly outside of what the majority of "mainstream" comics has to offer? That's pretty damn impressive stuff.
Now, like anybody with access to popular comics blogs and websites, I'm aware that the popularity of webcomics and their potential to offer financial and creative success to cartoonists can sometimes seem like a rinse-and-repeat type commentary--the cries of "heard it all before" ring loud in my head. But here's the thing: this ball just keeps rolling. Whereas any sales chart of single issue periodical comics seems held together by the screeching bolts and rivets of "standard attrition", webcomics keep clambering up the ladder. Dash Shaw's
Bodyworld, Chris Onstad's
Achewood, Matt Maxwell's
Strangeways--my personal favorite from 2009,
Championnat de bras de fer--and these are just the random ones that a maggot like me can think of at deadline. And while you and I may have heard all about how great webcomics are before, or how they offer a wide range of content and styles that dwarfs even the most eclectic publisher--often for free--it's too positive a story not to repeat, ad infinitum.
While I was waiting on TopatoCo to send out the book, I took a chance and joined the queue of admirers who send Kate Beaton fan letters, hoping that a pdf attachment of my official comiXology business card would help me stand out amongst what I imagine must be a sea of "To the TOTS AWRRSOME YOU BE" missives filling her gmail account. Luckily for you, she responded.
Totally Sinking: Was the book put together specifically because of the upcoming convention season or reader demand? Both? How long had it been on your mind?
Beaton: It was both, and it had been on my mind for a long time! I mean, people had been asking for a book for a long time. Even before I had enough comics to put in it. Also, when I go to shows, it is pretty hard being almost empty handed! It is so much nicer to have something worth people's time.
TS: I have a hard time believing that meeting you isn't worth people's time. If such people exist, they should be punched in their genitals. How quickly did the first printing sell out? I know from your website that Topatoco got a second printing together pretty quickly, but it looked to me like the first run was gone within hours. You didn't expect that, I'm assuming.
Beaton: About a day and a half, and no, I was not expecting it at all. It was the first print of a first book--how is anyone to know something like that?
TS: How did you pick which cartoons went in the book? Was it totally solo, or did you have some help? Or did you pass it off to lackeys? I'm hoping for lackeys.
Beaton: No lackeys, just me going through files and rescanning a lot of things. I don't have good scans of the earlier comics, and am missing a lot of the originals, so they could not go in. Personal ones I left out because I stopped doing them, and they were never meant to be anything more than a passing thought of what was going on a certain day before I had a big audience. So what is in the book are all the rest of the comics that I still have that could be scanned in at a proper size. How unexciting! You don't have to tell me.
TS: I find the prospect of reading your words exciting, regardless of subject matter. After the success of the book, are you more inclined to stick with publishing through print-on-demand or do you want to seek a relationship that would handle the whole get-it-into-bookstores thing? I imagine that's an "eventually" decision for you, but is it on your mind at least?
Beaton: It is an "eventually"! Not rushing into things, that is my game. The fact is, I can't make a real nice book by myself, just a very simple one, and in the end I'd be looking for a better set-up than one I can handle on my own. I am still new to all this! Very new, I think. Anyway, publishers are knockin' so I am hearing them out.
TS: I hope those publishers don't include Fantagraphics. I heard Gary Groth eats live kittens. How much time are you spending on the road right now? In the past few months, I've seen your name pop up for the Toronto festival, the upcoming MoCCA Convention in New York City, one of the PEN World Voices events--are you doing anything but the cartooning gig now?
Beaton: I do comics for a living, on the website and for a newspaper [in Canada], the
National Post. It's all Canadian history for the NP. And I guess it is convention season, but I have only exhibited at three shows in my life--SPX last year, the UX Comix Thing in London, and TCAF this year. I also went to the literature festival as you mentioned, but that was a different sort of event, more relaxed. Still, when it comes up, it makes you exhausted. I'll be at MoCCA and then I don't think anything else is on the radar until the next SPX.
Images from
Hark! A Vagrant: 120, ©Kate Beaton
Tucker Stone's writing may be found in print in Comic Foundry and online at The Factual Opinion, where he frequently reviews new releases.
This Ship Is Totally Sinking is © Tucker Stone, 2008
