Calamity Before Jane - by Noah Van Sciver (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A graphic novel centering on the real-life Martha Jane Cannary, better known as Calamity Jane. Highlights the impact of storytelling. With a postscript by a Native author as well as historical maps, photos, and a bibliography"--

Book Synopsis

Calamity Jane and the stories surrounding her are famous, but this graphic novel for young readers 8 and up is here to tell the story of Martha Jane Canary--the real-life survivor, orphan, and storyteller behind the legend.

In 1901, the Pan-American Exposition World's Fair was held in Buffalo, New York. Amongst spectacles like advancements in electricity and new inventions like the X-ray machine is a woman with a story--but not the one you've heard. Calamity Jane's life is shrouded in exaggerations and lies told to sell a more marketable version of reality, but cartoonist Noah Van Sciver is here to tell the truth: Martha Jane Cannary struggled throughout her life, from her childhood as a destitute orphan to her bitter adulthood as she watched the West she loved disappear before her eyes.

Review Quotes

"(Van Sciver's) attempt to expose Jane's tall tales while also presenting authentic episodes of her life is admirable and often successful. This balance of myth and reality helps readers understand how her legend was created, and should be a useful conversation starter for parents and teachers..."--The New York Times Book Review

"Van Sciver's artwork, drawn in India ink and colored digitally, is well illustrated and brings the narrative to life visually, reflecting the 'comics even teachers can love' approach of TOON Graphics."--School Library Journal

"Van Sciver's successful graphic nonfiction formula sends another tall tale packing. An author's note preempts the narrative with essential historical context on harmful stereotypes and caricatures of Lakota people. Backmatter from contemporary Indigenous scholar and professor Dr. Susana Geliga (Sicangu Lakota and Boriken Taino) expands this context even further to truly center Indigenous perspectives against the mythic 'Wild American West'... Photographs add authenticity to the lore, while Jane's unreliability as a narrator and figure is brought into question and deliciously muddies the truth. Engaging and eye-opening."--Kirkus Reviews

"Calamity Before Jane gives a sense of the mystique of the historical figure while also pointing out the falsehoods that made her a legend."--Foreword Reviews

"Before Calamity Jane became an icon of the Wild West, she was Martha Jane Canary (1852-1903), a teen learning how to survive on her own, an experience that Van Sciver chronicles in this brief but riveting graphic novel narrated by a fictionalized version of the subject. Gritty illustrations and ample 19th-century vernacular render a thought-provoking portrait of the rapidly changing era, across which romanticized depictions of the American West are juxtaposed with the harsh, sometimes unpleasant reality Jane endured."--Publishers Weekly

"This smooth introduction to one component of the U.S. government's betrayal of Native Americans will also remind readers that a myth's entertainment value is by no means an indication of its validity."--Booklist

About the Author

Noah Van Sciver is a multiple award-winning cartoonist who first came to comic readers' attention with his critically acclaimed, Eisner-nominated comic book series Blammo. His work has appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Best American Comics, Kramers Ergot, as well as countless graphic anthologies. Van Sciver was a regular contributor to MAD Magazine and has written and drawn numerous bestselling graphic novels including Joseph Smith and the Mormons, One Dirty Tree, Saint Cole and the Fante Bukowski: Struggling Writer series for Fantagraphics books. In 2015 he was the Artist in Residence/fellow at The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. His books and comics are translated into more than 6 different languages around the world.