Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

Kate Beaton’s Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is a deeply personal graphic memoir published by Drawn & Quarterly, chronicling her own experience working in Alberta’s oil sands to pay off student debt. Through her distinctive, expressive art and sharp, compassionate storytelling, Beaton captures the isolation, camaraderie, and environmental toll of the remote industrial camps. Originally serialized as a single, acclaimed volume in 2022, it stands as a landmark work of non-fiction comics, offering an unflinching look at the human cost behind a major resource economy.