Hark! A Vagrant [Hardcover]

FEATURED ON MORE THAN TWENTY BEST-OF LISTS, INCLUDING TIME, AMAZON, E! AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY!

Hark! A Vagrantis an uproarious romp through history and literature seen through the sharp, contemporary lens ofNew Yorkercartoonist and comics sensation Kate Beaton. No era or tome emerges unscathed as Beaton rightly skewers the Western world's revolutionaries, leaders, sycophants, and suffragists while equally honing her wit on the hapless heroes, heroines, and villains of the best-loved fiction.
She deftly points out what really happened when Brahms fell asleep listening to Liszt, that the world's first hipsters were obviously the Incroyables and the Merveilleuses from eighteenth-century France, that Susan B. Anthony is, of course, a Samantha, and that the polite banality of Canadian culture never gets old.Hark! A Vagrantfeatures sexy Batman, the true stories behind classicNancy Drewcovers, and Queen Elizabeth doing the albatross. As the 500,000 unique monthly visitors to harkavagrant.com already know, no one turns the ironic absurdities of history and literature into comedic fodder as hilariously as Beaton.

[Beaton's comics] are witty reinventions of literary and historical figures navigating modern times . . . A high-minded version ofThe Far Sidethat is at once of-the-moment and timeless. DEBORAH VANKIN,The Los Angeles Times on Kate Beaton

Simply put, this is the most well-drawn, funniest comic that I've read in a while. ADRIENNE SO, Wired on Kate Beaton

[Beaton's] neat linework and terrific grasp of simple caricature and facial expression sells a lot of the best strips, including Sasaki Kojiro meeting an undignified end, Jane Austen and Nikola Tesla being pestered by their fans, and Lord Byron muttering Bitches, man to a grieving Percy Bysshe Shelley. A- The Onion, The A.V. Club on Kate Beaton