#ducks by kate beaton

[compo67]

This past weekend, I had the privilege of reading "Ducks," by Kate Beaton. I have always been a fan of her work, going back to the early days of "Hark! A Vagrant." "Ducks" is phenomenal. It's so honest with grief. Can't recommend this book enough.

[evertomorrowart]

Best of YouTube 2023

Yes, I did spend the first week and change of January on this. I wish I could have had it done for New Years, but too many people came out with incredible work in December, so waiting turned out for the best.

What these creators do are a huge influence on my life, I would honestly have difficulty doing what I do without them. That isn't to say that my favorites of the year are *only* on this image--It was almost impossible to narrow down my favorites. Many creators I wanted to include couldn't fit on a single page, and too many of them made more than one video I wished I could draw too!

But, to all of you, thank you for what you do. You're an inspiration.

For those who don't know, further is an explanation.

At the bottom center is an artistic masterpiece by Defunctland: "Journey to EPCOT Center: A Symphonic History." Over the last several years, Defunctland has risen from delightfully-entertaining commentary on decommissioned theme park attractions to occasionally dropping profound statements on the creation of art itself. "Journey to EPCOT Center: A Symphonic History" is worth treating like the cinematic experience it is: No second screen, you sit your ass down in front of a TV, set down the phone, and then you *watch it.* Any Disney, theme park, or independent film fan needs to pay attention to this one.

Bottom left is Caelan Conrad with their piece "Drop the T - The Deadly Consequences of Gay Respectability Politics." While I do think they've done more visually or artistically-daring pieces before, "Drop the T" is one of the most important videos released on YouTube in today's current climate of hate. We as queer folk (and our allies) need to understand how integral every identity of the queer experience has been since the start of the Civil Rights movement (and before!). While we are not identical, we *are* inseparable, and we deserve having our real history easily accessible.

TERFs and other conservative mouthpieces need not reply. Your opinions are trash. 😘

I cannot stop watching and rewatching this video by @patricia-taxxon, "On the Ethics of Boinking Animal People." It's not just a defense of furry fandom and its eccentricities, it's a thoughtful and passionate analysis of what the artform achieves that purely human representation can't. Patricia goes outside of her usual essay format to directly speak to the viewer about the elements that define furry media (the most succinct definition I've ever heard) and just how *human* an act loving animal cartoons really is.

As an artist who can draw furry characters, but never really got into erotic furry art, this video is a treasure. Why did I choose to have her drawn as a Ghibli character, hanging out with one of the tanukis from "Pom Poko?" Guess you'll have to watch, bruh.

Philosophy Tube continuously puts out videos that I would put on this list--I'm not even sure that "A Man Plagiarised my Work: Women, Money, and the Nation" is the best work she released in 2023. However, this video got many conversations going between myself and my partner, and the twist on the tail end of the video shocked us both to such a degree that I had no choice.

At the very tail end of the year, Big Joel released "Fear of Death." On his Little Joel channel, he described it as the singularly best video he's ever done, and I'm inclined to agree. However, for this illustration, I ended up repeatedly going back to a mini-series he did earlier in the year: "Three Stories at the End of the World." All three videos are deeply moving and haunting, and I was brought to tears by "We Must Destroy What the Bomb Cannot." While it may be relatively-common knowledge that the original Gojira (Godzilla) film is horror grappling with the devastation America's rush to atomic dominance inflicted on Japan, Big Joel still manages to bring new words to the discussion. Please watch all three of the videos, but if, for some reason, you must have only one, let it be "We Must Destroy What the Bomb Cannot."

Y'all. Let me confess something. I hate football. I hate watching it, I associate seeing it from the stadiums with some of my worst childhood experiences, I despise collegiate and professional football (as institutions that destroy bodies and offer up children at the feet of its alter as a pillar of American culture)--

I. L o a t h e. Football.

But.

F.D. Signifier could get me to watch an entire hour-plus essay on why I should at least give a passing care. AND HE DID IT. I might think "F*ck the Police," the two-parter on Black conservatism, or his essay on Black men's connection to anime might be "better" videos, but this writer did the impossible and held my limited attention span towards football long enough to make a sincere case for NFL players--and reminds us that millionaires can *in fact* be workers. That alone is testament to his skill.

Sit down and watch "The REAL Reason NFL Running Backs Aren't Getting Paid." Any good anti-capitalist owes it to themselves.

CJ the X continuously puts out stunning, emotional videos, and can do it with the most seemingly-inconsequential starting points. A 30 second song? An incestuous commercial? Five minutes of Tangled? Sure, why not. Go destroy yourself emotionally by watching them. I'm serious. Do it.

Their video Stranger Things and the Meaning of Life manages to to remind us all why the way we react to media does, in fact, matter. Yes, even nostalgia-driven, mass-media schlock. Yes, how we interact with media matters, what it says about us matters, and we all deserve to seek out the whys.

Folding Ideas has spent the last few years articulating exactly why so much of our modern world feels broken, and because of that his voice continuously lives rent-free in my brain. While the tricks that scam artists and grifters use to try to swindle us are never new, the advancement of technology changes the aesthetics of their performances. Portions of Folding Ideas' explanations might seem dry when going into detail of how stocks work in This is Financial Advice, but every bit of it is necessary to peel back the layers of techno-babble and jargon and make sense of the results of "Meme Stocks."

Jessie Gender puts out nothing but bangers, her absolute unit of a video about Star Wars might be my new favorite thing ever, but none of her work hit so profoundly in 2023 than the two-parter "The Myth of 'Male Socialization'" and "The Trauma of Masculinity." There's so much about modern life that isolates and traumatizes us, and so much of it is just shrugged off as "normal." We owe it to ourselves to see the world in more vivid a color palette than we're initially given.

Panels drawn after Kate Beaton and "Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands."

"This is Not a Video Essay" is one of the most intense and beautiful pieces of art I've ever put into my eyeballs. Why do we create? What drives us to connect?

I don't even know what else to say about the Leftist Cooks' work, it repeatedly transcends the medium and platform. Watch every single one of their videos, but especially this one.

The likelihood you are terminally online and yet haven't heard of Hbomberguy's yearly forrays into destroying the careers of awful people is pretty slim. Just because it has millions of views doesn't mean that Hbomberguy's "Plagiarism and You(Tube)" isn't worth the hype. Too long? Shut up, it has chapters and YouTube holds your place, anyway. You think a deep dive into a handful of creators is only meaningless drama? Well, you're wrong, you wrong-opinion-haver. Plagiarism is an *everyone* problem because of the actual harm it creates--the history it erases, the labor it devalues, the art it marginalizes--which you would know if you watched "Plagiarism and You(Tube)".

Watch. The damn. Video.

In fact, watch all of them!

Thanks for reading this if you did.

[whilereadingandwalking]

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is a compelling black-and-white memoir about cartoonist Kate Beaton's two years working in the oil industry, trying to make enough money to pay her student loans, a choice that would eventually allow her to strike out as a cartoonist and become the well-known artist she is today (you don't need to know her to enjoy this memoir however).

It's an excellent, balanced story about a working-class, gritty, isolated profession where danger is part of the job and mental illness and drug use are common. The main throughline is the near-constant sexual harassment Kate faces, and how threatening it is as one of only a scattered few women living in the camps. It escalates several times, and she faces sexual assault and the resulting trauma. But even as she discovers the environmental damage of the sands, indigenous claims to the land, and her own terrible experiences there, she grates at others' big-city attempts to simply condemn the communities of men who are lonely and struggling, all while their far-off bosses talk them through useless safety trainings, give empty platitudes, and bury workplace incidents left and right. This memoir is a vivid tale of those communities as well as the ways in which a place can mark you, a trauma can change you.

Content warnings for sexual assault, harassment, dismissal.

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[carriagelamp]

It feels like I have been mostly reading duds this month… somewhat appropriately, I guess, given that January is rather the dud of months. About half of these books I really genuinely enjoyed (among others, Ducks, Fox 8, and Unseen Academicals were all great!) and the other half ranged from “fine but lacklustre” to “seriously?” I did end up reading more Canadian books than usual though, which was a pleasant surprise

Doctor Who: Twelve Angels Weeping

A reasonably fun Doctor Who short story collection that nominally had a “winter” conceit to tie them together but… not it didn’t. This could be read at any point of the year, it's not particularly Christmas-y. Instead each of the twelve stories focused on a different Doctor Who villain/monster, with the Doctor and his companions only occasionally featuring — it was actually rather refreshing!

Of the stories, my favourites were: Red-Eyed League (Praternoster Gang!!! I love love love stories with them!), Celestial Intervention, Student Bodies, A Soldier’s Education, The Rhino of 23 Strand Street, and Anything You Can Do. I think there was only one story I disliked enough to skip, the rest ranged from pretty good to at least passable.

Apothecary Diaries v2 & 3

Honestly, this disappointed me. I really truly loved the first book of The Apothecary Diaries but for the next two books I felt like I was forever waiting for something to happen. But it was really just more of the same episodic stories. Which, if that's what you want, it delivers! Obviously lots of people who aren't me love this series! But for me... no

It feels like this author is allergic to character development — or even character interactions! You get a few funny moments now and again, but absolutely nothing that’s willing to go past the surface. I understand that Maomao is not a very social or empathetic character (frankly it’s one of the things that I love about her) but there’s ways for an author to force character interactions and make characters go out of their comfort zone even if the character's themselves are reluctant. This author… doesn't. Maomao just bops around, doing her thing. Which is fine. But also boring.

Instead the novels hinge entirely on the quality of the mysteries which… frankly just aren’t in-depth enough or clever enough to carry that weight. So. Disappointing. I might try watching the anime at some point to see if that’s more enjoyable because I do still enjoy Maomao and Jinshi… maybe that’s why I’m most annoyed, because this has potential that is just seems to do nothing with…

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore

Another disappointment. I saw this on so many 2024 book list round-ups! I’ve been looking for a new nonfiction book! It’s about bookshops!!! But despite this perfectly cocktail, this just… didn’t do it for me. I was more interested in getting a larger, overarching look at how things evolved, which this book gave a little bit of, but it spent too much time in the weeds for me. It focused a lot on single, specific bookstores and people. Maybe because I’m not American and don’t know these towns/stores/people so they have less impact, but I found it got so entrenched in kinda repetitive minutiae that it lost sight of the bigger picture that I was craving.

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

Now this was a pleasant surprise. I’ve read Kate Beaton’s works before (I think everyone on the internet has… Hark! A Vagrant and Step Aside, Pops)

but I hadn’t been aware that she’d done a new graphic novel or that it was going in a more serious direction than her gag-a-day style!

Ducks is a memoir-style comic that looks at Beaton’s time working on the Albertan oil sands to pay off her student loan debts, and the horror that comes from taking so many people and forcing them into a pressure cooker of a work environment. The oil sand camps tend to be quite northern, intensely isolated, very male-dominated, and run by the bastard oil companies that treat employees like disposal commodities to shove into their meat grinder. The conditions are horrific, and what Beaton experiences is also horrific. This graphic novel does a great job giving a sincerely nuanced look at these conditions and poses some very difficult questions about human nature and society.

Eerie Tales from the School of Screams

Just a fun youth horror graphic novel! I’ve enjoyed Graham Annable (the Grickle)’s work for years, mostly through his youtube shorts and Puzzle Agent, so I was excited to see him put out a standalone book. His signature style -- in art, humour, and horror -- is very present in this work, and it tells a few different horror short stories in a way that’s inviting to younger readers while still being able to give a thrill to older readers. Definitely worth giving a read!

Fox 8

A very neat short story that I also saw crop up on some 2024 reading lists. I listened to its half-hour audiobook and was very happy to do so! It’s told in the perspective of a fox who is struggling to understand why his forest has been ravaged, the ensuring food scarcity, and the people that now live there. It primarily focuses around Fox 8’s fascination with the humans and the “mall” that they’ve built where the forest once stood. Equal parts funny and tragic with a very unique narrative voice.

Just Beyond the Very, Very Far North

A very cozy children’s novel. I’d read The Very, Very Far North last year and was excited to see it had a sequel. It follows a group of animal friends who all live in The Very, Very Far North, and deals mostly with low-stakes friendship challenges and personal problems. It's written in a very Winnie-the-Pooh style — not the most exciting book you’d pick up, but it feels perfectly designed to be a bedtime readaloud.

My Dress-Up Darling v4

Another meh for me. I enjoyed the first few books of this series which focus on a girl who wants to get into cosplay but lacks the skills to do so, and a boy who is interested in things like sewing and outfit design but has only ever used it for crafting hina dolls. Their growing friendship is cute and I like all the research that went into this! But this one… just didn’t do it for me. I enjoyed some parts well enough (the budget cosplay chapters were neat!), but while the past three books I found had a good balance between plot and fan-service, this one felt like too much fan-service and too little substance. I probably won’t buy anymore, but I might keep reading them through the library, because I am invested in the cuteness of the main couple and the pretty costumes...

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind v1

………..I’m going to commit a grave sin and say that I actually didn’t love this. Maybe it’s because Nausicaa isn’t my favourite Ghibli film, but I found this so politically dense that I just got… bored. The art was pretty though, of course, and it would be an excellent read for anyone who really liked Nausicaa the film and would like to delve deeper into the lore, because it is apparently a LOT more expansive than the film is able to touch on.

Nim’s Island

A kidlit classic (even though it only came out in the 90s… it feels like a ~classic~ for some reason? Or that’s the vibe I’ve always picked up) that I’ve meant to read since I was a kid myself xD I finally did it! It’s a Robinson Crusoe style story about a girl who lives on a small island with her father, who’s a Scientist Performing Science. The story starts with her father needing to go to sea to do Science and getting stranded, so we see Nim needing to manage the island on her own while corresponding with an author through email. It’s cute. A little dull, the plot varies between slow to non-existent. I might have liked it more as a kid, but as an adult it really didn’t do it for me.

The Teller of Small Fortunes

A cosy fantasy book that follows Tao, a fortune teller who specializes exclusively in reading “small fortunes” for people, reluctant to do anything bigger out of fear of drawing the Mage Guild’s attention. As she travels though she winds up telling a wandering mercenary’s fortune which have significantly bigger implications than she could have expected. Tao suddenly finds herself saddled with the mercenary (who is determined to see if stick around after hearing his fortune), as well as an ex-thief, a less-than-successful baker, and an ornery cat. For the first time in a long time, her life is suddenly full of people as she continues to travel the land and give out her small fortunes.

Cosy fantasy can be hit or miss for me (sometimes they feel agonisingly dull and pointless) but this one had just enough action and intrigue to keep a good forward momentum going. I enjoyed all the characters, and though I didn't think it totally stuck the landing the first half was very charming and I would recommend it to anyone that wants something soft and pleasant and magical.

Unseen Academicals

This must be my third or fourth time rereading Unseen Academicals, it’s one of my favourite Discworld novels; it’s technically the final book of the Wizard’s series, but it functions largely as a standalone since it has an entirely new cast of main characters and the wizards serve mostly as background cast. And man, did Sir Terry Pratchett absolutely nail his cast for this book. Mr Nutt, Trev, Glenda, and Juliette are all completely perfect and interact with each other in really interesting ways.

Technically this book is about football (soccer). More technically, it is not even remotely about football. More, more technically, it’s all about football. Also it's about gender and socio-economics and model minorities and genocide. Also it's Romeo and Juliette except it's not and also Romeo woke up in time to realise how stupid everything is.

Street football has always been popular in the city, creating a complex and occasionally violent subculture among the various streets and their teams, but now the higher-ups are beginning to take notice. Just as the wizards are starting to get involved in this Sport Of The People, other characters are determined to escape it and its ever present Shove. As always, Terry Pratchett does a great job dissecting people and society in a way that is both very poignant, a little tragic, and hilariously funny. Can’t recommend it enough, even if you’ve never read a Discworld book before.

[bellasbookclub]

Reccer Spotlight: Zahnie!

Even Though I Knew the End

Convenience Store Woman

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

Dial A for Aunties

Zahnie's got some romantic, thought-provoking, and fun contemporary recs for us. Full text available in their tab of the Bella’s Book Club Summer Reading ‘24 Reclist!

more info on BBC Summer Reading 2024

more Reccer Spotlights

[nusta]

Una storia personale e collettiva, intima e generale, di donne e uomini e persone che lavorano e soffrono e resistono e hanno poche alternative e poco ascolto. Parla di ambienti di lavoro e di conseguenze individuali e sociali e generazionali. Parla di politiche economiche che ignorano o fingono di ignorare troppe cose per l'interesse di pochi, innescando circoli viziosi di dipendenza ed emigrazione sostanzialmente forzata.

È una biografia frammentata, concreta e onirica al tempo stesso, nella sua narrazione che scorre spesso senza soluzione di continuità, calata nella specifica realtà del Canada eppure piena di corrispondenze con qualunque altro posto in cui la gente va e viene e si ritrova e si perde e cerca di stare a galla nonostante tutto.

Qui in Italia è impossibile non pensare al Sud, al Nord, e a tutto quello che ha significato per il nostro paese.

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Mesi fa l'ho trovato in offerta come e-book in italiano e mi sono ricordata che Zerocalcare l'aveva consigliato e in un impeto di fiducia l'ho comprato senza leggerne nemmeno una pagina, contrariamente al solito. L'ho tenuto lì, come faccio con tanti libri, in attesa del momento giusto, che è arrivato ieri pomeriggio, in cui l'ho letto tutto di fila e poi sono pure andata a cercarmi un paio di interviste per saperne di più sull'autrice e sulla storia che ha raccontato.

So che nei prossimi tempi dovrebbe cominciare una collana della Bao a cura di Zerocalcare e se anche gli altri titoli saranno come questo, voglio proprio tenerla d'occhio.

[girderednerve]

this must surprise no one but kate beaton's picture book shark girl totally fucking rips. the art is expressive, funny, & rewards rereading; the plot is heartwarming; it contains several fun facts about sharks neatly woven in. like i am so glad that i am no longer a youth librarian but i will always be delighted by a good picture book, they are SO HARD to really land. & this one rocks! so if you are shopping for a child who needs picture books, consider this lovely fable about being yourself (& engaging in judicious acts of biting 🦈)

[semper-legens]

168. Ducks, by Kate Beaton

Owned: Yes Page count: 430 My summary: Kate Beaton’s account of her time working in the oil sands, and the culture and people she encountered there. My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

I've spoken about this book before. I don't really know why I chose to reread it - I've been down with Covid lately, and I needed something to read that was meaty, but wouldn't necessarily tax my addled brain too much. A graphic novel felt like the perfect solution, and this one is always an interesting read. It's not a nice story, or an easy story, but Beaton expertly keeps it from being a constant downer by weaving in moments of light and life and happiness throughout the text. Life in Nova Scotia is hard. Many people have to migrate to more populous areas of Canada in order to find work, and when they do end up in terrible jobs with high risks that leave them spending weeks and months away from home. But this environment on the oil sands, the environment that Beaton walked into in the 00s, was oppressive in other ways too. She experienced a lot of gendered violence, from sexist microagressions to straight-up assault, but despite how miserable her job was making her, she couldn't quit because she needed the money to pay her student debts.

The book is an honest and raw memoir of Beaton's experiences and struggles while working on the oil sands for two years. There seems to be a split in the people she worked with - young women, like herself, there to pay a debt or earn some money and having to deal with a toxic workplace culture; young men, out to seek their fortune being inducted into this life; and older men, usually former fishermen or miners or other blue-collar workers who couldn't get jobs in other industries. It's usually the latter who are responsible for much of the low-level misogyny prevalent on the oil sands, with the younger men learning this behaviour at their feet. What I liked about this graphic novel was that, although her telling is obviously coloured by her perception and experiences, it's still a largely neutral telling, with many moments that humanise the older men and contextualise their behaviour. Men who worked on the ships before that industry died, men who worked in the mines before that industry die…it's no wonder they're bitter and suffering as much as they are. There's a layer of guilt, too. Beaton got to leave. For many, this is their permanent life. But none of that excuses what happened to her, and Beaton doesn't go too hard either way, laying out the facts as they happened, adding how she felt but trying not to condemn too hard. It's a thought-provoking read with more questions than answers, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested either in Beaton's life or in this sort of working-class story.

Next up, a man is found dead on a beach.

[wrishwrosh]

who here has read ducks by kate beaton. if you have read ducks you should come talk to me about ducks and if you have not read ducks you should read ducks

[intellectualradical]

Celina Harpe

From Ducks: two years in the oil sands

by Kate Beaton

[whilereadingandwalking]

Every January 1, I dive into any graphic novels or comics on my shelf. It’s a fun tradition partially born from the fact that I tended to ask for graphic novels I wanted for the holidays, since they’re pricey! But I grew to love it. It’s a fun way to start the year off by blazing through a couple reads, getting a little high when you’ve already read 3 books 2 days into the new year. This year I read Wonder Woman Historia by Kelly Sue Deconnick and several artists, and Ducks by Kate Beaton.

[bizarredawdler]

Finished reading "Ducks" by Kate Beaton.

Really poignant story about the author's experience working in the Alberta oil sands that hit close to home for me on some occasions.

I definitely recommend this!

[morgan--reads]

Ducks - Kate Beaton

Summary: A graphic memoir of Beaton’s two years working in the Alberta oil sands to try and pay off her student loans.

Quote: 

My rating: 4.5/5.0   Goodreads: 4.45/5.0 

Review: A spare story, and all the more beautiful for it. Beaton doesn’t preach, instead making her points by simply showing daily life in the sands. Sexual harassment and sexual violence are at the core of that experience, but so is worker exploitation and the solidarity that emerges because of it. Beaton shows both, without sentimentality but never without sympathy. The beautiful blue-wash art is appropriate for this lonely, melancholic memoir. 

To read: Beaton is most famous for her Hark! A Vagrant comic, which shares a similar art style, but is very different in tone.

[robocorn-fun]

Finished Ducks 2 days ago and I'm still fucked up.

[rustandruin]

Ducks by Kate Beaton

Tuesday, 25 April, 2023

Beaton’s latest work is a complex, unflinching memoir that recounts the two years she spent working in Canada’s oil sands. While Beaton has a very established and recognisable style, the deceptive simplicity of what she pulls off is sometimes not recognised for how impressive it is. Ducks takes all that levels it up a bit, as she includes slightly more complex and intricate spreads than reads of her regular comics might be used to — which is awesome.

Since this is a memoir, I will not be commenting on the “story” itself, but I will say I am very impressed with some of the sequences in which she showcases certain aspects of her life. The highs and lows of that time are hard to escape, and the emotions they no doubt evoked in her. She conveys all that clearly and concisely, meaning there’s no room to hide. Which makes her overall message all the more potent; that industries like this are both godsends to the people working there but also devastating in so many ways both little and big.

It took me a few tries to read this, but that was more on me and just how busy and stressed I’ve been. But once I had a moment, it was easy to sink into and follow along, even in the parts you don’t want to. The again, that’s Beaton’s skill as a storyteller on display.

I cannot wait to see what else she gives us. I’m sure it’ll be a treat.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️