By Christian Perrissin & Matthieu Blanchin, translated by Diana Schutz & Brandon Kander (IDW Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-63140-869-4 (HB/Digital edition)
Other people’s lives are fascinating. Just see any TV schedule to affirm that watching what neighbours or strangers have done, are doing or want to do is a major drive for us nosy hairless apes. It’s even more enticing if we’re allowed a smidgen of comparison and an ounce of judgement, too. However, the problem with famous dead people is that we’re forced to make our assessments at a remove because they’re dead and we only have records or, worse, myths and legends to construct our portrait from. Thankfully, we’re pretty imaginative monkeys too, and have drama to help us fill in the gaps and flesh out the characters.
These gifts proved immensely valuable to author Christian Perrissin and illustrator Matthieu Blanchin in the creation of a 3-volume graphic biography demythologising one of the Wild West’s most enigmatic icons. The award-winning result was Martha Jane Cannary: La vie aventureuse de celle que l’on nommait Calamity Jane.
Perrissin studied Fine and Applied Arts before moving into Bande dessinée, and from 1987 to 1990 apprenticed with Yves Lavandier before going solo. He has since scripted TV shows and film, written epic sagas such as El Niño and Cape Horn and inherited the scripting of venerable comics classic Redbeard.
Co-creator Blanchin started out as a storyboard artist and illustrator at the turn of the century, before moving into comics, producing work for a host of companies and titles. Eventually he moved into historical and autobiographical material such as Blanche, Bonjour… and Le Val des ânes. In 2002 he was hospitalised by a brain tumour and languished in a coma for 10 days. After convalescence and relapse he ultimately (in 2015) turned the experience into the hugely influential and celebrated Quand vous pensiez que j’étais mort: Mon quotidien dans le coma (When You Thought I was Dead: My Daily Life in a Coma).
This monochrome, duo-toned translation offers their epic collaboration in one titanic tome, blending often-sordid facts of outrageous adventures, unflagging spirit and astonishing determination into an entrancing tapestry showing the underbelly of the American dream. With great warmth and humour, they construct a true masterpiece of the very real and strong woman behind all the stories – many concocted by Martha Jane herself – as she overcame and survived impossible odds, doing whatever was necessary to survive and protect her family.
The tale begins with a graphic note from the creators, citing sources and contextualising her life and times in ‘The Mormon Trail…’, before the unforgettable life story begins in an overcrowded cabin in the desolate prairie region of Utah. In her life, Martha Jane Cannary worked hard for little reward, met scoundrels and scalawags, gunslingers and heroes, lived on her wits and determination and was forced far too often to compromise her principles to preserve others as well as herself. She knew many famous men in many infamous places but I’m not naming them. This is her book, not theirs.
Calamity Jane was present throughout many of the most infamous moments of American history in its most iconic locations. She had far more enemies than friends and was most often despised and ostracised rather than honoured, but she always carried on, living her life her way. It was often tainted by tragedy, but she also scored her share of triumphs and experienced joy and love – always on her terms.
This is a compelling and utterly mesmerising chronicle of authentic western principles and achievement to enthuse and enthral anyone with a love of history and appreciation of human strength and weakness.
Calamity Jane: The Calamitous Life of Martha Jane Cannary, 1852-1903 Translation and Art © 2017 IDW Publishing. Story © 2017 Futuropolis. All rights reserved.