Tuesday, December 27, 2022

REVIEW: Hark! A Vagrant (graphic novel) by Kate Beaton

Hark! A Vagrant is a webcomic that often combines humor with historical and literary references. I bought this collection brand new.

Review:

I used to love reading this webcomic. It still holds up pretty well in printed form (this hardcover is really nice), although my enjoyment of particular strips tends to vary based on my understanding of the history/literature/other being referenced and the level of silliness. I tend to prefer it when the humor is based more on the thing being referenced than on pure silliness.

Sadly, I don't have the level of historical and literary knowledge necessary to understand all the references. A lot of the historical comics reference Canadian history, which I know pretty much nothing about, but I'm honestly not much better with the European or US history ones either. 

Quite a few of the comics include brief notes from Beaton (as far as I can tell, not the same as her comments on the web versions). I love that this book includes an index with all the people and works being referenced. As far as print versions of webcomics go, this is a really nice volume.

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