'I get a lot of comments from people who say part of the fun of reading the comics that I make is coming across a historical figure or something that they had not known before,' she says.FEATURED ON MORE THAN TWENTY BEST-OF LISTS, INCLUDING TIME, AMAZON, E! AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY! Hark! A Vagrant takes readers on a romp through history and literature - with dignity for few and cookies for all - with comic strips about famous authors, their characters, and political and historical figures, all drawn in Kate Beaton's pared-down, excitable style. 'A certain amount of time passes and then you're allowed to get in there and get a little dirty with some things and people don't mind.'īeaton's comics also delve into history's lesser-known participants.

'That's the reason I often stay away from very modern things,' Beaton says. You never know when a historian or family member will feel Beaton has gone too far. Still, making light of history can be tricky. 'Son, do you really think you're going to get into the White House with an attitude like that?' Joe Kennedy asks the infant. Even Ted, who's shown as a baby burping on the floor, gets asked about his political ambitions. Kate Beaton is a Canadian cartoonist who became well-known for her online work, Hark! A Vagrant.īeaton acknowledges that much of that drive came from patriarch Joe Kennedy, and her comic shows the Kennedy sons competing for their father's approval - and a place in American history. That really fascinates me the drive that they all had to go and to succeed and to push.' 'The Kennedys are fascinating because I'm Canadian and this is a big American thing and they're such a big part of the culture around here. 'I love the Kennedys they're amazing,' she says.

One of her favorite subjects is the Kennedy dynasty. feels good.'īeaton's comics tackle both the obscure and well-known sides of history. He gloats, 'Man! It's pretty nice being on the North Pole!. The white explorer, Peary, demands that his black associate help him from his sled so he can stand on the North Pole and get all the glory - but Henson refuses. In her version of the discovery of the North Pole, Henson gets his revenge. 'Something had happened to him - maybe he was worn down by cold - and he was driven the last bit of the way, I think, by Henson,' cartoonist Kate Beaton tells NPR's David Greene.īeaton's new book, Hark! A Vagrant - based on her website, Hark! A Vagrant - is full of witty rewrites of history and classic literature. But Henson was black and the year was 1909, so for a long time the credit went to his white companion, Robert Peary, even though he never set foot on the North Pole. Some say Matthew Henson was the first explorer to get to the North Pole. Your purchase helps support NPR programming.

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