Literature also provides Beaton with a lot of material. Thanks to Beaton’s research, the characters are always dressed in historically accurate costumes, even if they speak in a more modern way. Her style is simple and clean: black and white ink drawings and fluid lines that remind me of Quentin Blake’s work.
They’re written in a way that you can really imagine the characters’ voices as you read, and their expressions are priceless too. What I really like about these comics is that the author’s voice is so strong. Even if you have no idea who the characters are, usually a quick trip to Wikipedia is all you need to get the joke, and understanding the reference makes you feel clever. For example, she has a monk writing a gospel of Mark fan fiction, a WWII hipster battalion that only liberates the cafés, and Jules Verne writing fan mail to Edgar Allan Poe. What makes her cartoons so accessible, even for people like me who haven’t studied history since school, is that Beaton shows history through the lens of the present day.
As well as historical figures, this book is full of characters from literature, comic books, and characters of her own creation. She has a silly sense of humour and applies it to any subject, no matter how serious. “Oh ladies, must you disrupt science with your emotions? And your underwear?” – By Kate Beaton, from
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