rcww10ebim

Kate Beaton, Treasure

Treasure

Kate Beaton

Kate Beaton (b. 1983) is a Canadian cartoonist, currently living in Brooklyn, New York. In 2005, she graduated from Mount Allison University, where she majored in history and anthropology and began publishing her comics in the university newspaper. Her Hark! A Vagrant Web comic series, from which “Treasure” was taken, has been widely praised and in 2011 won the Harvey Award for best online comic. A book of her Hark! A Vagrant comics was published in 2011 and spent five months on the New York Times’ list of best-selling graphic works. While Beaton’s early work, including “Treasure” (2007), occasionally focused on autobiographical topics, most of her Hark: A Vagrant comics offer a witty, irreverent take on literary and historical topics.

Before you read, think about the things you treasured as a child.
As you read, consider how what you treasure now and how the things and people you hold dear have (or have not) changed over time.

See the full-size cartoon.

Courtesy of Kate Beaton.

Source: Beaton, Kate. “Treasure.” Hark! A Vagrant.Harkavagrant.com, 2007. Web. 20 Sept. 2012. www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=75

Reading for Meaning

Question 2.1

E9GkRVtOEF7KDS/laVAlVS2kgrr7DOeF6iqVF8/Sd2CSvcNXpIoDYwUnjgmhmpOtPmYH8J8jWkmw5maVVZ1+dphWX5L1sK9MyaeH+9Ho5L3njIl9wjWBDl3OoBBe7KtVtGyriWnXnMmVLroOOEguMdWJPKmOj24APIKmJw==

Below is an example summary of this reading selection: In this graphic memoir, a woman remembers and reflects on a time when she, as a child, buried a jar in the backyard. At first she regards her younger self with skepticism, but later she digs up the jar, implying some value or understanding that her younger self possessed and with which she is trying to reconnect. Your summary will differ from this one in the way it is written, but it should include roughly the same information.

Reading Like a Writer: Conveying the Autobiographical Significance

Beaton, like other cartoonists, uses drawings to enhance — and often to stand in for — written descriptions of actions, people, or thoughts. She also uses word balloons instead of speaker tags for dialogue, as well as separate frames to convey new scenes or the passage of time. Even though the conventions that she follows are different from those followed by writers of purely textual narratives, Beaton creates a compelling story of a remembered event.

Write one or two paragraphs analyzing Beaton’s use of cartoonists’ techniques to tell a story:

How does the cartoon format facilitate a dialogue between Beaton’s current-day and younger selves? How would the reader’s experience have changed if Beaton had told the story solely in words?

Question 2.2

Gis9ZNYyZ+dc75vpWnOrTBgXplV3ZTVRQOKzXkDaRZ3ixFPp5Ouxxk9CN5dfUCbVG4kV19XBb08JeoM15RXDy/WlikvsvpsB+etujvHYVLJpRerRrMm2eTtN5WXmxrtlp3R1QC6OJwNYMtNplzpA0M8gcNLs8djkrweq/zpVNHQ2YG+BPQrtOQ5OY/6Lk8oqf58ili0setxirhZ53isLcjtVdbeuYOSekVH+PnsCetk/7wU8mUTTtGzy/NurTG10CZV5qim6H8pnukVVgevOW5R0ryr69KMBLfK8KeDC34fBf5BG2EpgEqV6qOL6JAqzvSsGhQeTn5itRyit1ahToPxRm475FH2bWjrXe+cPrFdt9/MEYhmHUZ+ryM9oQAHe9PA0zDiPkm2srPvtrJDxMk1zZYblnkuEmNVOetDIOeR6km0dYhlLPvxbZTGPSqn4c85XlYUjMruhYyz1vyEsPsSK1mexc3GO3tfiubUPwClDHlp/xoPTaxl150M=

See an interactive version of Beaton’s graphic memoir that highlights how it uses the basic features of the genre.