History, literature, pop culture collide in hilarious mashup

In the introductory blurb to her second collection, Step Aside, Pops, Canadian web cartoonist Kate Beaton says some of her ideas come out of left field.

I disagree; they pretty much all come out of left field.

How else to explain a series of strips in which the American Founding Fathers hang out in a modern shopping mall? (Being opponents of the British monarchy, they’re offended by Burger King.) Or a single-panel cartoon in which a suffragette of old listens to a phonograph perched on her shoulder in the manner of a 1980s boombox?

Or one which supposes what would have happened if the first phone call from Mr. Watson to Alexander Graham Bell was a cellphone photo of Watson’s bare bottom squatting on the inventor’s lunch?

Welcome to Beaton’s world of twisted history, where figures from historic events, classic literature and current pop culture merge with hilarious results.

You may have heard of her first anthology, Hark! A Vagrant, which focused mainly on Canadiana. In this new volume, she broadens her source material by poking fun at the scandalous women who rode the first bicycles, Julius Caesar and even fairy tales such as Cinderella.

I like her pop-culture parodies the best, as in the strips where the Enchantress, a Marvel Comics villain, tries to lure Thor into making out, but the god of thunder is too busy with his Game Boy to notice her.

If you like offbeat humour that draws on Austen, Bronte and The X-Files, this will be right up your alley. The strips are accompanied by insights from Beaton into her creative process, the graphic-novel equivalent of a DVD commentary track printed below each strip.

The larger trend this book illuminates is how this country’s female creators are so good at web comics. There’s also Jillian Tamaki’s SuperMutant Magic Academy, as well as London/ Stratford resident Emily Carroll’s Through the Woods, which first appeared online.