Calamity Before Jane: A TOON Graphic

by Noah Van Sciver

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.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Middle Grade, Comics, Childrens, Biography, Nonfiction

56 pages, Hardcover

Published December 23, 2025

About the author

[copied from: http://nvansciver.wordpress.com/about/]

I am THE one and only Noah Van Sciver, cartoonist/comic strip artist and illustrator. I’m best known for my alternative comic book series Blammo and my weekly comic strip 4 Questions which appears every week in the alternative newspaper Westword. My work has appeared in The Best American comics 2011, Mad magazine, Sunstone, The Comics Journal, MOME and numerous comics anthologies. I’m currently hard at work on my first graphic novel The Hypo which will be published by Fantagraphics books upon its completion. I’m a cancer and I hate seafood, and adventure.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was confused by this book.

First up, the title doesn't make much sense. I mean I can twist it around in my head a little and come up with rationalizations. We are introduced to Calamity Jane before we find out how she began life as Martha Cannary (also spelled "Canary" in some sources). And the book ends with her making a big decision near the end of her life, which I suppose could the quandary or calamity before her. Or, hey, this story tells how the word "Calamity" came to be put before the name "Jane." But none of these can overcome how much the title bugs me since empirically she was Martha before she was Calamity Jane (and Jane might not even have been her middle name at birth).

The story itself is so brief, I feel I barely learned anything about Calamity Jane, other than she lied so much that anything I did learn might not be true at all. I also resented the pages lost to establishing a couple of children -- who I can only assume are entirely fictional -- just so she has an audience to whom she narrates her life.

And finally I'm a little confused about the intended audience. It's seems to be a juvenile book, but it is narrated by a person who is actively drinking herself into oblivion. I don't want a book that celebrates Calamity Jane's lies, but neither do I want one that celebrates her alcoholism. And with the multiple, complex flashbacks all coming from Jane's mouth, the lines between her truth and her lies are so blurred I'm not sure a juvenile audience will be able to distinguish them, leaving this book in the end as another promotion of legend over fact.


Disclosure: I received access to a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very short version of Calamity Jane’s life, as told towards the end of her life. She worked hard, first on Pony Express, and then on other adventures in the “Wild West”. She thinks about returning to her old life, after being in a Wild West show, in 1901, but others tell her you can’t go home again. There is no more wild west, even if there ever was one. The buffalo are gone, the native people have lost the land. There is nothing there for her.

She leaves just the same, and that is where the story ends. After that, there is information about her, including photos as well as a little more background.

This is such a short story, that I think that kids reading this will want to know more about her life, and perhaps that is the point. For me, it was far to brief.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is being published December 23, 2025.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

I read this over twice, thinking that I must have missed pages somewhere. Accidentally scrolled past them or something. I didn't though. Not only was this extremely short, what was there was so disjointed, it didn't make sense. Really, the only information that I got out of it was the part at the end that was written in paragraph format. I also did appreciate the beginning when the author talked about the horrible treatment of Indigenous people and working towards addressing them. After reading that, I was really excited to start reading, but I was very disappointed.

[Michael Doane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calamity Before Jane offers a sobering counterpoint to the legend of Calamity Jane, reframing her not as myth but as Martha Jane Cannary a woman shaped by poverty, loss, and a rapidly disappearing world.

Noah Van Sciver’s approach is deliberately unsentimental. Rather than leaning into adventure or frontier heroics, the book focuses on deprivation, instability, and the emotional toll of survival. By situating the story around the 1901 Pan American Exposition, Van Sciver creates a quiet but effective contrast between a nation celebrating technological progress and a woman whose life has been marked by neglect and erasure.

The greatest strength of the book lies in its intent: stripping away exaggeration to examine how legends are manufactured, often at the expense of real people. Martha Jane’s life is presented as fragmented and unresolved, which feels historically honest, even when it makes for an uneven narrative experience. For younger readers, this honesty may be challenging but also instructive, offering an early lesson in how history and storytelling diverge.

Visually, the art is restrained and functional rather than dramatic. The simplicity supports the somber tone, though it occasionally limits emotional engagement. The graphic format succeeds best in conveying isolation and exhaustion rather than momentum or transformation.

Calamity Before Jane will appeal most to readers interested in biography, mythmaking, and alternative historical narratives. While it may not fully cohere as a traditional story arc, it succeeds as a corrective portrait one that asks readers to reconsider who gets remembered, and how.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews]

Thanks to NetGalley and TOON Books for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I’ve really leaned into graphic history books the past few years because I am a visual learner. I’m also seeking out stories about women that history may have forgotten or never heard the real story of. That’s why I was interested in Calamity Before Jane. Martha Jane Canary was an orphan who became a legend.

The depictions of Jane’s upbringing, her cultural identity, and the vanishing West aligns with my love of rediscovered history. She had a rough life, yet this historically grounded narrative challenges the myths about her.

One of the issues I had with the book is that I didn’t learn much about Calamity Jane. She lied so much in her life that everything she said is suspect. Who knows the truth? It seems that this is just another book that promotes all her lies and doesn’t really get to the truth, whatever that may be.

My other big issue is the amount of drinking she does. I’m really not sure the intended audience for this book. If it’s for middle grade readers, I’m not sure that fall down drunkenness is something parents want their children to read about. At the very least, it should drive discussions with kids who read this graphic novel.

The illustrations are pretty good, and at the end of the book, there’s photographs and more information about Calamity Jane and her background. Overall, this was a mixed bag for me.

[Alexis Berman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for my Advanced Reader's Copy of this book.

When I went to write a review for this book I first went to Brodart to find the age range for the book. According to Brodart, this book is for ages 8-12, or grades 3 to 7. It is described as juvenile historical nonfiction. To begin with, most of what Jane says in the book isn't true, a point the author does not make very clear until the last page of the book, which, for a "nonfiction book" would be very confusing for a young reader. The book is very disjointed, in timeline, in location, in many ways. But my biggest problem, even though this part is actually true, is her drinking. Calamity Jane was an alcoholic for most of her life but that part doesn't need to be displayed so clearly throughout the book. Even though the book never says that she was drinking, page 19 has a box full of empty bottles. After that there are at least 15 panes where there are people drinking or empty bottles, and at one point she passes out from drinking too much. I believe that it is possible to write a book about Calamity Jane for this age group that would be appropriate, but this is not it.

[Cathy VanLear · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be perfectly honest, I am not a fan of graphic novels which may have affected my opinions. However, I felt that this novel was extremely short, disjointed in timeline and location, and provided very little substance. The only information I learned about Calamity Jane was gleaned from the back of the book in the paragraph form area.

Yet the most appalling part for me was the frequent implications of alcohol use! Yes, Calamity Jane was known to be a severe alcoholic but this graphic novel is written for ages 8-12. Numerous pictures show drinking and bottles and scenes on page 30 show her passed out from alcohol.

Thanks to Goodreads for this free book, Calamity Jane: A Graphic Novel. My review is voluntary and opinions are my own.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I've heard her name all my life, I've never set out to read much about Calamity Jane. I figured a young readers' graphic novel would be right up my alley when I saw the ARC on NetGalley.

I do agree with another reviewer that this felt a little disjointed, but more so in the sense that I just wanted more of the story. This may simply be due to the fact that it is, after all, aimed at younger readers though. This totally works as a basic introduction to her. The illustrations are engaging, and I appreciate the diligence of making sure Indigenous voices are included!

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Juju Rodriguez · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars - generously

This whole book was a weird, disjointed mess. It's supposed to be a non-fiction for young readers but it consists of Jane telling lies all the way up the the last pages when they tell you everything you just read was a lie. So, great. The only informative part of the book was the essay at the very end. It had some weird, out of place, woke overtones. The art style is not my personal style, so I didn't factor that into my overall rating.
Going based on the story itself, and lack there of, I would not give this book to a young reader.

Thank you to Netgalley for this e-arc.

[Ron Baumer · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book was disappointing. While the artwork was good, the story was disjointed and confusing. The author tried to do too much in too few pages, resulting in a mess. The end of the book proceeded to say that in reality the story and tales of Calamity Jane were mainly lies and made up. If the end point was to say it was all a lie, then why write the book? The book seems to be intended for children, and it would really confuse them in my opinion. Overall, a pretty disappointing book, and one I would not recommend.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

[October Murilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't really understand what this book was going for. I assumed from the title that it was maybe going to be about Calamity Jane's life before she earned that moniker, but it takes twenty pages to get to that part of the story and then the info presented is breezed through quickly and a bit indifferently. The rest is just a brief glimpse at her life after her Wild West glory days. None of it every really adds up to much. The artwork is fine, but the story is sorely lacking.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

My favorite part is the end pages with all the real black and white pictures. Calamity Jane is a LEGEND. So seeing pictures of her is so cool.

I liked the framing device of Jane telling her story one on one with two orphans who attempted to steal into her wild west show.

But the story sort of trails off and does not have a real ending. I got to the last page and was very surprised the book had ended.

Thank you to NetGalley for this free, advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short and not complete enough story about Calamity Jane's life. It's just little snippets, most of which aren't even complete. The only thing this does, is make me go find another book that is actually a biography and not this.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat confusing backstory of the woman named Calamity Jane. She lived an adventurous and fraught life only to find no place she really fit at the end. This graphic novel mirrors her trajectory by being full of excitement only to peter out.

[Marseydoats]

This book was a disappointment. It was touted as being a YA graphic, it's more geared toward elementary kids. The graphics are nightmarish. They made Calamity Jane out to be a complete fraud, which she wasn't.
I enjoyed the photos in the front of the book, but the rest of it was a waste of time.

[Myles · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was about Jane telling her life as she grew up and how she wanted to go to the wild west! The illustrations were more interesting than the actual story! I feel like it was lacking! Especially because it felt like some illustrations didnt have a primal reason for it to be there!

[skai_booksandbracelets · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part history and part legend. It shares a bit of both in this graphic novel.