Deer Woman: An Anthology

by Elizabeth LaPensée (Editor), Weshoyot Alvitre (Editor), Patty Stonefish

Produced by Native Realities (Tribal Force, Tales of the Might Code Talkers, The Wool of Jonesy, DemiCon) and co-edited by Elizabeth LaPensée (Honour Water, Sequential Survivance, Indigenous Love) & Weshoyot Alvitre (Umbrella Academy, Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, Native American Graphic Classics), DEER WOMAN: AN ANTHOLOGY brings together more than a dozen Native and Indigenous women artists and illustrators to present stories of resistance, survival, empowerment and hope.

Drawing from the inspiration of traditional Deer Woman stories, DEER WOMAN: AN ANTHOLOGY will be a powerful collection of stories by Native women to bring determination and healing to those in need and those willing to listen with their hearts.

Genres: Horror, Graphic Novels, Anthologies, Indigenous, Fiction, Short Stories, Comics

132 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2017

Reviews

[Helen Power · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a phenomenal collection! This anthology is poignant and brings forward issues that indigenous women deal with on a daily basis. Each story is short and to the point, yet they carry so much weight in the heavy subject matter. The illustrations are beautiful and the content is disturbing and thought-provoking. This is a must read!

[Elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating anthologies is difficult - there are almost always going to be some pieces that stand out ahead of the crowd, and some that fall a little flat. Overall, however, this was a really good collection. This anthology collects stories from a wide range of indigenous authors and illustrators (I think all women, but I don't want to assume). These stories center around the Deer Woman, and by extension the abuse that many indigenous people, especially women, face. This book is a gut punch, but it's well worth reading. The art styles are all so different, but they compliment the stories being told. The stories themselves range from brief to detailed, raw to meditative, plain spoken to lyrical. Each different but unified in theme. I'm really glad Rebecca Roanhorse put this on my radar, and that a friend tracked it down at a comic convention. If you can get your hands on it you should absolutely do so.

[Shomeret]

This is a graphic anthology with the contents contributed by Native American women dealing with the issue of abuse. It's also edited and published by Native Americans.

I didn't love everything in this anthology, but I liked "Dog Woman" by Barbara Kenmille which is about a woman who gives dogs to women who have been victimized if she feels they need them. I also very much liked the illustrated poem "To Dress in Red" by Weyshoyot Alvitre. The poem is moving and the art enhanced it.

[Adele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this very much. Some notes on some of the individual entries in the anthology:

Deer Woman: A Vignette - darker and more unflinching than I expected. The art does not particularly appeal to me, but worked for the story.

Equilibrium - absolutely gorgeous. I went back several times to linger over the pictures in this gallery.

Wives - one basic, simple metaphor, but the symbolism worked for me and I liked the ending.

Las Aunties - this may be my favorite piece. More an illustrated story than a comic, or rather a series of character studies, but I loved it. Strong, though flawed, women in community supporting each other and the next generation of women.

Dogwoman - this one could also be my favorite because doggies! And another great ending.

Deer Woman - art is once again not to my taste, but I liked the association of Deer Woman with wolves.

To Dress in Red - not sure I get this one, but interesting.

Changing Woman - this one was focused on a high school student and the tone also seems more juvenile, so while it is fine, I found it less powerful than some of the others.

Mama - Yeah! Kick ass. Loved this one.

The Taste of White Flowers - this one is all text so comic purists will probably hate it, but the words are full of rich, visual imagery.

There were some typos and other little errors in the introductory material and author bios, and yeah, that bugs me and probably contributed to the 4 star instead of 5 star rating, but otherwise really nice anthology.

[Melinda Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection! I was glad to back this as a Kickstarter. A must-read for Native Women voices, though it is hard and disturbing at times. There are some beautiful stories contained in these pages.

[Yuna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice variety of art styles and versions of the Deer Woman story. My only complaint is that the typeface could be difficult to read for some stories due to font style and/or the color of the background. This would be a challenging read for someone with low vision.

[Heather V ~The Other Heather~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I don't know what I was expecting, but this was incredibly powerful.


Our book club chose this for July, and until now I'd only read one of the stories within the anthology. I'm so glad I bought the entire thing. Some breathtaking art and a remarkable way of not only telling stories but confronting ugly truths in an almost poetic way.



This panel really got me.


Highly recommend this one for insight into what many Indigenous women deal with every day, as well as a look into some of the legends and lore that are giving their power back to those who need it most.

[Mélanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing collection of powerful comics by Indigenous artists.

[Onyx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, badass, beautiful, and brave.

[Katie Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a worthy, important collection!

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love indigenous graphic novels and storytelling. I am very happy to have supported this book on Kickstarter.

Deer Woman collects a wide range of voices and artistic styles in this beautiful volume. My favourite contributions include pieces by: Jackie Fawn, Maria Wolf Lopez, and Weshoyot Alvitre.

Published by Native Realities. This volume fits nicely into my collection alongside Moonshot Vol. 1 and 2.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally prefer more polished work, but the rawness to the pieces in this anthology help communicate the primal anger and righteous outrage over the treatment of Native American women. It is important that a book like this exists, and I hope to see more like it in the future.

I do wish that a book that sports five editors and assistant editors would have had better proofreading though.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I first was introduced to Deer Woman through Louise Erdrich's The Antelope Wife, and after this, I am so solidly a fan of Deer Woman. Powerful short stories here--I was brought to tears by a few. I want more.

[Mills College Library]

Fiction D312 2017

[I. · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good, and also a critically important anthology. #mmiw

[Todd Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art is pretty cool. The stories are so simplistic. I'm probably not the best person to judge this, but not really my thing.

[Zumie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't particularly familiar with the Deer Woman - this anthology was fantastic and emotional as an explanation and through multiple depictions.

[TinySalutations · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*This anthology lands somewhere between a zine and a graphic novel. Most creators had a ways to go to get a polished work, but I think that's okay since it was obviously a community work. The zine feel came from the community collaboration and the structure. It has several short comics, but also includes artwork without story, text with little/no artwork, poems, and even a kids' submission section.

I think that this is an important anthology. It is important as a community project recording oft overlooked or suppressed voices. It also raises awareness for violence against Indigenous women and MMIWG.

I felt like many of the stories struggled with portraying a modern day Deer Woman that isn't just indiscriminately violent/seductive. I felt like the first story (Deer Woman: A Vignette by Elizabeth La Pensee) was a bit too violent for me, especially since I didn't feel like the gore really served a purpose. I also found it odd that later on, fuck is *'d out, but other curse words are not (even in the same sentence) and this kind of violence was uncensored. One story, Dogwoman by Barbara Kenmille, was very difficult to read due to the design of the font on the background.

The story in Mama was really interesting, though I occasionally got lost. I'd like to read this story in a longer format that could spend the time to go through Julz Rich's awesome life story. The short essay Las Aunties by Kimberly Robertson was wise, with a touch of humour, and well written. Taste of White Flowers, Staining Her Lips by Rebecca Roanhorse pulled me in right away, but it's just the very beginning of a story. I swore that I was missing a page, because that couldn't be the whole thing. But that is it. It just drops off before doing anything. It's well written and sounds like it would be a great read if continued though.

I loved the ink art in Deer Woman by Maria Wolf Lopez and the art project of Equilibrium by Mia Casesa. I liked the art in Changing Woman by Tatum Bowie, and in Mama by Jackie Fawn too.

[Marlowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been trying to find this anthology for a while, but of course my local bookstore doesn't carry it. I finally broke down and searched for any place that might have this book, and that's how I found Red Planet Books and Comics. Just in case anyone hasn't heard of them before, they specialize in indigenous lit, an their customer service was just absolutely wonderful! They had no trouble shipping out to Canada, and I picked up a whole bunch of neat merch in my order. So this is actually two reviews in one!

For the anthology, I really liked it. Las Tias, in particular, was really inspiring. I liked that it took risks with the art styles, going for more impressionist images that convey mood really well. Obviously, some of the stories had better artwork than others, but I found something to love in all of them.

The stories are very short - they are moments of finding strength (and, sometimes, revenge). They are vignettes rather than actual stories. I think that my favourite page, though, came right at the end where they included little one-pagers and drawings submitted by children.

[Tyler Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, haunting anthology of comics, art, and short stories, all by Native women, depicting the myriad of issues they regularly face, including a staggering amount of abuse and sexual assault. I especially love the Deer Woman figure, part woman, part deer, who rescues abused women by trampling and killing their abusers with her hooves. I look forward to seeing more work from LaPensée and the rest of the contributors, and learning more about the Arming Sisters organization!

TW: abuse, sexual assault

[Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One in three Native women are sexually assaulted in their lifetimes.

Let that resonate."

- the first two sentences of the Publisher Introduction

In this book “...is a group of powerful Indigenous women sharing their power with others. These stories are medicine.” And the stories herein are very powerful with amazing, beautiful artwork! I was blown away by every one of them. I hope everyone gets a chance to read this graphic novel!

“And in the end, we always return to ourselves...”

[Renea S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this anthology about a week ago and it has taken me this long to really digest and process these stories. They were stark, disturbing and uplifting as well. This is not your typical graphic novel.

[Ingrid Tiffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad I ordered this anthology from Red Planet Books and Comics it's a good addition to my growing collection of Indigenous literature. A nice variety of voices are included in these comics, short stories and art.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any anthology the stories have different qualities and appeal to different taste. I liked the first story the best. All of the stories, however, build on the Deer Woman character and enrich the stories with their various perspectives.

[Eljay · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only complaint with this book is that the text is difficult to read in some of the pieces. I am still rating it as a 5 because I think that issue is reflective of my visual disability and not shortcomings on any of the artists' parts.

[Jessica]

“In the world we live in, the stronger your tía network is, the better your chances at survival are.” —“Las Aunties”

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad this exists. While I didn't connect will all of the pieces, there were a few that definitely got under my skin.

[the_nonfiction_navajo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was absolutely beautiful.

[Anja · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised to find Jonathan Thunder's work in this anthology I randomly picked up.

[Alicia Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part poetry, part graphic novel, part visual art, this work gives voice to missing, murdered, and assaulted indigenous women in empowering and powerful ways.