Today we are giving props to a sister under the skin, namely, Kate Beaton of Hark! A Vagrant. It makes us wish we could draw, it really does.
Here’s Kate’s take on the I ♥ Mr. Darcy crowd, the shippers, the mashups, and of course, fan fiction.
Lest we think Jane alone inspires Ms. Beaton, check out “Dude Watchin’ with the Brontës”.
You know, speaking as someone with $0.02-worth of knowledge about comics, I think the web has been a great thing for literary and nerdy comics. Would you have seen XKCD in the Sunday funnies? No, because it has math in it, and yet it is the most widely quoted comic among people I know. And as for Wondermark? Not even a chance. The way Wondermark pairs antique and modern is far too weird for The Normal Person, though, come to think of it, he’s probably a brother under our skin (ew). Even if he is kind of steampunk and we’re . . . not? But we do love to relate Austen to the earth-shattering concerns of our day!
Would Jane Austen herself have used comics? (Did she, O scholars of juvenilia?) She could pop off some awesome one-liners, and that makes it easy to connect her with the understated elegance of The New Yorker cartoons or the devilry of Charles Addams. (Was Jane the soul-sister of Wednesday Addams? Discuss.) But in end her forte was the subtle precision of words, lots and lots of words. I think she would have found the text-lite format of even the graphic novel to be a trial. Witness the weakness of Pride and Prejudice tweets compared to the original.
austenacious 
I just read the exhaustive new Austen bio, Jane’s Fame (it was great) which addressed her juvenilia and ephemera in detail. No mention of comics. However, I think I have seen some illustrations accompanying Lady Susan.
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Yay Kate Beaton! I first discovered her through one of her Austen comics. She does great history comics too.
(I totally adore the Brontes watchin’ dudes, though. It’s one of my all-time favorites.)
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You know who else is delightful? 2D Goggles – a comic about Ada Lovelace (Lord Byron’s daughter) and Charles Babbage, with occasional appearances by the Victorian Wolverine — I K Brunel. Intelligent and charming and funny. http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/the-complete-lovelace-and-babbage/
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2D Goggles – a comic about Ada Lovelace (Lord Byron’s daughter) and Charles Babbage, with occasional appearances by the Victorian Wolverine — I K Brunel
See? This is why I love the universe.
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I love Kate Beaton. She’s so insane and funny, and I swear I’ve learned more from looking up the people in her comics than I ever did in history class.
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