Author Kate Beaton reads from her critically acclaimed, award-winning graphic novel, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands. Above is her recently revealed postage, stamp which you can purchase at our local Canada Post offices.
December 3, 2025
-by April MacDonald
New stamps were recently revealed by Canada Post celebrating six Canadian graphic novelists, most importantly to this county is that Mabou’s Kate Beaton was honoured with one of her very own.
Beaton posted on her Facebook Page “I have a stamp…the second issue of Canadian comic artists. Six artists in the set, and I got to meet Jimmy Beaulieu and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. We had to draw ourselves with our most well-known work. And we got to do a Vanna White reveal!”
The event took place on November 20th in Montreal, home of her publishers, Drawn and Quarterly.
Beaton dropped into The Oran and we were fortunate to have an in-person chat about it.
She noted how proud she was to be able to bring her mom, Marion Beaton to Montreal for the honour.
Beaton explained that she was contacted by Canada Post to put her and her work on a stamp a couple of years prior during the first series celebrating Canadian graphic novelists, for her two graphic novels, Hark! A Vagrant and Step Aside, Pops!
She said she knew Ducks was about to be released and that this work was likely going to be “the one.” So, Beaton politely requested that they wait for this work to be released.
She told Canada Post during the ceremony how much rural communities depend on Canada Post and the services they provide. Beaton went so far as to tell them that the people of Mabou took to the streets in protest when the Canada Post office was going to be closed back in the 1990s.
Canada Post wrote:
Known for her sharp wit and keen sense of the absurd, Kate Beaton is featured in this year’s Graphic Novelists series, with a stamp featuring her novel “Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands”. Published in 2022, Ducks is her first full-length graphic novel. The memoir depicts her experience of working in the oil sands of Northern Alberta.
In 2023 Ducks became the first graphic novel to win CBC’s prestigious Canada Reads competition.
Graphic novels creatively weave words and art together to tell a wide range of narratives that range from works of fantasy to intimate memoirs. While the medium is relatively new, emerging nearly a half-century ago, it has found a large and passionate global audience that helped launch its artists and authors into cultural significance.
Canada has produced several prominent graphic novelists, and this stamp issue shines a light on six influential Canadian creators: Kate Beaton, Jimmy Beaulieu, Guy Delisle, Julie Doucet, Bryan Lee O’Malley, and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. These individuals have not only risen to prominence in their field but their works each showcase a diverse and unique approach to storytelling that resonates with readers.
Last May, Canada Post issued the first part of this two-part series showcasing the unique work created by Canadian graphic novelists.
This year’s stamp release features the same collaborative design approach: Each graphic novelist worked with Canada Post to create original drawings, exclusively for this stamp issue, featuring the main characters from one of their most celebrated works depicted reading the novels in which they appear.
Beaton is a self-taught artist and first began publishing her comics in the student newspaper while studying history at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick.
After creating a history-themed comic strip series titled Hark! A Vagrant in 2007, Beaton published her first full-length graphic novel, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, in 2022. The memoir depicted her move to Northern Alberta to work off her student debt and was celebrated by readers and critics alike for its intimate, damning, yet profoundly human exposé of the industry.
Product: Graphic Novelists (2025): Official First Day Cover – Kate Beaton
Article: 414285131
Quantity: 4,000
Cancel: Mabou, Nova Scotia
Price: $2.24
Beaton said that when she was researching what other Inverness County folks who were honoured with a stamp, the only ones she could find were Moses Coady and Angus L. Macdonald.
