Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

In Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, cartoonist Kate Beaton turns her incisive eye from history to her own past, chronicling her time working in Alberta’s brutal oil sands to pay off student loans. Published by Jonathan Cape in 2022, this single-volume graphic memoir strips away the romance of the boomtown, using her signature blend of deadpan humor and stark humanity to reveal the isolation, misogyny, and environmental cost of the industry. It’s a deeply personal, quietly devastating account that cemented Beaton as a major voice in nonfiction comics.