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The Beast:Making a Living on a Dying Planet
What does it mean to lie for a living? This original graphic novel explores the role advertising has played in shaping our public ideas about oil. Set just south of the Alberta Tar Sands in Edmonton, 'The Beast' tells the story of two creative millennials who have come to cash in on the "oil boom". In a world that grows only more eco-conscious and eco-anxious, this comic is a map for oil media literacy.
- GenresGraphic NovelsCanada
109 pages, Paperback
Published March 13, 2018
18 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 29, 2020
The relationship and discourse between the climate and the economy is complicated in our current moment of late stage capitalism. It’s messy. Its hard. It’s problematic and can be understood in black and white or different shades of grey depending on the day. I think this comic story did a pretty bang on job of showing the complexities; how people try to figure out how to get through another day, and this figuring out is not static; whether it be living with our truths or living out lies, and how our ideals and desires are in constant conflict within our society’s current structures and dynamics. Get this for the comic lover in your life.
August 3, 2019
Does not reach for a simple solution or single viewpoint. Not what I was expecting. It inclines the reader towards thought on the issues of work, environment, sustainability and the future and while some might not think so - it does critique both sides of the debate.
June 1, 2020
Today is another long time procrastinated review, this time of a book entitled The Beast: Making a Living on a Dying Planet. A collaboration between Nicole Burtone and Hugh Goldring in partnership with Dr. Patrick McCurdy at the University of Ottawa. The fifth book published by Ad Astra comix, and first original work, The Beast was published in 2018.
As far as warnings go, I think the only thing to alert y'all to is drinking and a brief (not graphic) sexual harassment situation.
Digging into the creative team, Nicole and Hugh are the dynamic duo behind Ad Astra Comix all the time and according to their website they are described as follows:
"After working in and around a variety of activist projects for 10 years, Nicole Marie Burton founded Ad Astra Comix in 2013, as an aspiring political comics artist in search of a community. In the years that have followed, Nicole has presented on the history and nature of political comics, facilitated youth workshops and “Feminist Drink-N-Draws” to encourage this community. She has also contributed to the publishing and printing of each Ad Astra title, beginning with a re-issue of “100 Year Rip-Off” in 2013. She now works full-time for Ad Astra Comix and as a freelance illustrator. Her portfolio can be viewed here.
Her illustrated work currently includes ‘Coal Mountain,’ a short history of the B.C. Corbin Miners’ Strike of 1935 (part of the Drawn to Change anthology); ‘Eugenie SHARK!‘, a graphic biography of the late marine biologist Eugenie Clark, and ‘DOGS‘, a webcomic about the findings of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission."
and "Born in the frozen wastes of the National Capital Region, Hugh is an amateur historian, mediocre poet and full-time internet snarker. He enjoys print, pints and pines. Deciduous trees are ok, too. He identifies as an intersectional or synthesis anarchist.
Since graduating from Trent University with a B.A. in History, Hugh has worked as a freelance writer and researcher. He worked as a subcontractor on projects for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, an experience that helped provide the basis of the comic ‘DOGS‘. Hugh was involved as an organizer, media contact and misfit toy at Occupy Ottawa, and has been involved in Food Not Bombs chapters in three different Ontario cities. He writes intermittently on his blog, and recently had an essay published in ‘How Queer!‘ by On Our Own Authority Books."
Finally, according to the University of Ottawa's website, Dr. Patrick McCurdy's Research Description includes, Media strategies of civil society actors, Representation of protest and civil society in the media,Media events and the 'media eventisation' of society, Consequences of living in a media-saturated society, Public Broadcasting (CBC/BBC), Media and international development, and Oil and Culture.
I own a number of Ad Astra Titles and they are all pretty awesome. I should post and re-post reviews. My tardiness has only to do with my Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria and is certainly not a comment on the quality of the work.
Flipping the book over, they summarize the story as follows:
"Set in Alberta, 'The Beast' sinks its fangs into one of the toughest questions of our time: Would you rather starve next week when the exonomy crashes, or in 50 years when the ecosystem collapses? Environmentalists and energy companies engulf each other in a firestorm of dramatic imagery and emotionally manipulative rhetoric in this tale of existential uncertainty. Join art school graduates Callum and Mary as they drift through bars, strip clubs and vegan wing joints not so much struggling to answer life's difficult questions as doing their best to avoid having to ask those questions int eh first place."
Working inside the system to survive vs scraping by on the outside, and several points in between. Callum and Mary encompass a lot of ground in the widely varied lived experiences of people caught in between a rock and a hard place. How do we make a life on this planet? Despite it making it pretty difficult to summarize succinctly, the amount of nuance brought to bear on the story is pretty exciting.
Not sure how it compares to the diversity in Alberta, which is probably much higher then we far away city folk think, but it was nice to see that each person in The Beast has a pretty unique appearance and attitude across a couple of "diversity" touch points. While some issues of race are not touched upon, the characters do come in contact with some of the intersections of local Indigenous peoples and oil companies. Sexuality and gender does come up in subtle but interesting ways. With the focus on work and work culture, it might have been interesting to incorporate ability vs disability in a bigger way, but maybe that would have been overly complicated? Besides the character's focus on the environment, class is probably the thing that comes up the most since both characters are largely limited by money.
As far as warnings go, I think the only thing to alert y'all to is drinking and a brief (not graphic) sexual harassment situation.
Digging into the creative team, Nicole and Hugh are the dynamic duo behind Ad Astra Comix all the time and according to their website they are described as follows:
"After working in and around a variety of activist projects for 10 years, Nicole Marie Burton founded Ad Astra Comix in 2013, as an aspiring political comics artist in search of a community. In the years that have followed, Nicole has presented on the history and nature of political comics, facilitated youth workshops and “Feminist Drink-N-Draws” to encourage this community. She has also contributed to the publishing and printing of each Ad Astra title, beginning with a re-issue of “100 Year Rip-Off” in 2013. She now works full-time for Ad Astra Comix and as a freelance illustrator. Her portfolio can be viewed here.
Her illustrated work currently includes ‘Coal Mountain,’ a short history of the B.C. Corbin Miners’ Strike of 1935 (part of the Drawn to Change anthology); ‘Eugenie SHARK!‘, a graphic biography of the late marine biologist Eugenie Clark, and ‘DOGS‘, a webcomic about the findings of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission."
and "Born in the frozen wastes of the National Capital Region, Hugh is an amateur historian, mediocre poet and full-time internet snarker. He enjoys print, pints and pines. Deciduous trees are ok, too. He identifies as an intersectional or synthesis anarchist.
Since graduating from Trent University with a B.A. in History, Hugh has worked as a freelance writer and researcher. He worked as a subcontractor on projects for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, an experience that helped provide the basis of the comic ‘DOGS‘. Hugh was involved as an organizer, media contact and misfit toy at Occupy Ottawa, and has been involved in Food Not Bombs chapters in three different Ontario cities. He writes intermittently on his blog, and recently had an essay published in ‘How Queer!‘ by On Our Own Authority Books."
Finally, according to the University of Ottawa's website, Dr. Patrick McCurdy's Research Description includes, Media strategies of civil society actors, Representation of protest and civil society in the media,Media events and the 'media eventisation' of society, Consequences of living in a media-saturated society, Public Broadcasting (CBC/BBC), Media and international development, and Oil and Culture.
I own a number of Ad Astra Titles and they are all pretty awesome. I should post and re-post reviews. My tardiness has only to do with my Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria and is certainly not a comment on the quality of the work.
Flipping the book over, they summarize the story as follows:
"Set in Alberta, 'The Beast' sinks its fangs into one of the toughest questions of our time: Would you rather starve next week when the exonomy crashes, or in 50 years when the ecosystem collapses? Environmentalists and energy companies engulf each other in a firestorm of dramatic imagery and emotionally manipulative rhetoric in this tale of existential uncertainty. Join art school graduates Callum and Mary as they drift through bars, strip clubs and vegan wing joints not so much struggling to answer life's difficult questions as doing their best to avoid having to ask those questions int eh first place."
Working inside the system to survive vs scraping by on the outside, and several points in between. Callum and Mary encompass a lot of ground in the widely varied lived experiences of people caught in between a rock and a hard place. How do we make a life on this planet? Despite it making it pretty difficult to summarize succinctly, the amount of nuance brought to bear on the story is pretty exciting.
Not sure how it compares to the diversity in Alberta, which is probably much higher then we far away city folk think, but it was nice to see that each person in The Beast has a pretty unique appearance and attitude across a couple of "diversity" touch points. While some issues of race are not touched upon, the characters do come in contact with some of the intersections of local Indigenous peoples and oil companies. Sexuality and gender does come up in subtle but interesting ways. With the focus on work and work culture, it might have been interesting to incorporate ability vs disability in a bigger way, but maybe that would have been overly complicated? Besides the character's focus on the environment, class is probably the thing that comes up the most since both characters are largely limited by money.
January 18, 2020
It is interesting that this book arouse out of academic research. I appreciate innovation and non-conventional academic publishing (did I have problems convincing my dissertation committee that my research blog was a legit way to share my research findings). I've read a handful of other graphic books based on academic research and/or topics; to be honest it has not proven to be an effective way to either share research findings or, more importantly, tell compelling stories in a creative manner. In all cases, there just wasn't sufficient attention to detail in the art and story.
This work starts to develop a couple interesting characters, but never fully fleshes them out. Mostly, this is a character-driven story and substantively not about the underlying issues (e.g. the oil sands of Alberta and their environmental impact). As a work arising out of an academic researcher, I was expecting more depth around the issue. It's fine that it was a character story, but then much more time and energy is needed on these characters to make the story compelling and make us care about their actions and choices.
Glad to see continued experimentation in graphic literature and in academic publishing. Hopefully, one day someone will perfect this marriage.
This work starts to develop a couple interesting characters, but never fully fleshes them out. Mostly, this is a character-driven story and substantively not about the underlying issues (e.g. the oil sands of Alberta and their environmental impact). As a work arising out of an academic researcher, I was expecting more depth around the issue. It's fine that it was a character story, but then much more time and energy is needed on these characters to make the story compelling and make us care about their actions and choices.
Glad to see continued experimentation in graphic literature and in academic publishing. Hopefully, one day someone will perfect this marriage.
April 13, 2025
I have been searching for comic books and graphic novels about activism for a while now, and I came across this. It is about Callum and Mary living in Canada just before and during the forest fire that got the name The Beast. Callum is a broke activist, and Mary is working at an advertising agency. Despite being on opposite sides of the table in the climate crisis debate, they are friends and live together.
It kind of reminds me of Picketline in that it presents activists as normal, everyday people trying to fight for what they feel is right. This perhaps makes for a less dramatic story than in The liberator series for example, but it’s never less than interesting.
One of the things that are very interesting in The Beast is that it shows well how everyone really is an hypocrite within the capitalist system when it comes to our climate crisis. Callum fights for his ideals, but has to rely on Mary to put food on the table and a roof over his head. Mary shares his ideals, but works for an oil company at distracting the climate crisis debate. Both are tangled up in the oil industry despite what they know to be true.
And there are other activists that enter the story that are very vocal about keeping oil in the ground while being quite happy to use stuff made from oil. The thing is thought that our capitalistic system makes it almost impossible to get away from oil. It’s everywhere, and in everything. So even the most fundamentalist activist has difficulty getting beyond this system. But, the book also shows that that doesn’t mean that we should stop fighting.
I like the way the way this is presented in a real way. The characters, and the situation feels real as a result. There are no simple solutions to this problem in the book, and there are no simple solutions to this problem in real life. There are no superheroes coming to save us. Only real people trying to push the world in the right direction from with in a system where changing course seems impossible.
I read the extended digital edition, that has essays, and conversations to put the graphic novel into better context. This is interesting as such, but in my view the graphic novel stands well on its own. One of the things comes up is that this is in some way very Canadian, and may not appeal to international readers as such. As an Icelander I got this quite well without the explanation's. Some of the things that they feel the need to explain for people that aren’t familiar with the Canadian context, seem quite familiar here even though we do not have an oil industry. So I think it is unnecessary to explain it in such terms.
Essentially, I think this is a good book about a complex issue. It is one more example of how the graphic medium can be used to come complex stories across to their readers.
It kind of reminds me of Picketline in that it presents activists as normal, everyday people trying to fight for what they feel is right. This perhaps makes for a less dramatic story than in The liberator series for example, but it’s never less than interesting.
One of the things that are very interesting in The Beast is that it shows well how everyone really is an hypocrite within the capitalist system when it comes to our climate crisis. Callum fights for his ideals, but has to rely on Mary to put food on the table and a roof over his head. Mary shares his ideals, but works for an oil company at distracting the climate crisis debate. Both are tangled up in the oil industry despite what they know to be true.
And there are other activists that enter the story that are very vocal about keeping oil in the ground while being quite happy to use stuff made from oil. The thing is thought that our capitalistic system makes it almost impossible to get away from oil. It’s everywhere, and in everything. So even the most fundamentalist activist has difficulty getting beyond this system. But, the book also shows that that doesn’t mean that we should stop fighting.
I like the way the way this is presented in a real way. The characters, and the situation feels real as a result. There are no simple solutions to this problem in the book, and there are no simple solutions to this problem in real life. There are no superheroes coming to save us. Only real people trying to push the world in the right direction from with in a system where changing course seems impossible.
I read the extended digital edition, that has essays, and conversations to put the graphic novel into better context. This is interesting as such, but in my view the graphic novel stands well on its own. One of the things comes up is that this is in some way very Canadian, and may not appeal to international readers as such. As an Icelander I got this quite well without the explanation's. Some of the things that they feel the need to explain for people that aren’t familiar with the Canadian context, seem quite familiar here even though we do not have an oil industry. So I think it is unnecessary to explain it in such terms.
Essentially, I think this is a good book about a complex issue. It is one more example of how the graphic medium can be used to come complex stories across to their readers.
March 9, 2018
I really enjoyed this book. While it was pretty short, the characters grappled with the complicity we all have in the destruction of the planet, and how to survive while still keeping your soul.
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February 14, 2024For school
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews