So the scholarly article I read was an excerpt from Janice Radway’s “Act of Reading the Romance” from Reading the Romance. This was published in 1991, so expectations of women were still pretty strict in the idea that women were caretakers of the house with responsibility over their husband’s and children’s emotional needs. The ladies Radway interviewed just wanted some time alone to read their books and to escape from their realities.
Because this blog post needed a deep dive into fan perspectives and The Loneliest Astronauts comes up a bit bare in that aspect, I decided to turn to Hark! A Vagrant, which might become my new obsession, and I thank Ben for originally talking about it with me.
I couldn’t find the comments section of her works through her archives, so I turned to Tumblr, Instagram and Amazon reviews of her book to get the scoop.
An overwhelming amount of people just come for the laughs. Whether it’s from a bad day, an overwhelming workload, or something to start the day off right, so many people find Beaton’s interpretations of historical and literary figures really funny. We think of historical figures as stuffy or noble because we define them as “the greats” like Edgar Allen Poe, and many literary figures are tragic or heroic like the infamous Gatsby, but Beaton likes to spin their feats into humorous situations.
By framing history and literature this way, the audience doesn’t have to be very knowledgeable to get that it’s funny, and it just adds another layer of accessibility to viewers. Those who do know the context will find it even more humorous.
A lot of people talking about her work say it’s a history lesson you can laugh at. Her engaging works have inspired people to dig up information on the characters in the comic if they don’t get the references. Here’s an amazon review I found on the product of one of Kate Beaton’s books for Hark! A Vagrant:
I think many people are drawn to this webcomic from the ones that got famous as Beaton’s works circulated through the Internet, and relatable panels became reaction images. A larger structure that determines how people find Beaton’s works is simply the diffusion of content across the internet, and the exposure leads to new readers. The Edgar Allen Poe one is everywhere.
As always, stay tuned for next time!
Astronomical Webcomic 
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