Calamity Before Jane by Noah Van Sciver
A graphic novel for young readers 8 and up
As the protagonist of the 1953 movie Calamity Jane, wholesome Doris Day prettily crooned the chart-topper “Secret Love.” Now, fast forward a half-century to Robin Weigert as Jane in the TV series Deadwood. What this plainer Jane gave vent to was profanity and insults.
Contradictory interpretations, yet somehow fitting. As Susana Geliga points out in her afterword to the historical graphic novel Calamity Before Jane, the rambunctious Wild West heroine couldn’t get her own biography straight, either. Touring with Buffalo Bill Cody’s popular Wild West Show, Martha Jane Canary (1852-1903) would listen to fellow performers’ adventures, then get mixed up and blend them into her own. “Being that [Jane] was never a soldier or part of the military, and never fought against Indians, her reputation as a fearless Indian fighter was as fictitious as her stories,” says Geliga, a History and Native American Studies professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
Mix of truth and whoppers or not, Jane’s vivid storytelling made her a legend. And in the fun, lively Calamity Before Jane, written and illustrated by Noah Van Sciver, you can see why.
When Jane finds two grubby, hungry runaway children hiding in her tent—the Wild West Show’s version of a dressing room—she gives them both food and, at their pleading, the story of her youth. This part, you suspect, is mostly true:
Unable to prosper in Missouri, her dodgy dad decided to seek his fortune out west. Away the family bounced in a wagon train whose discomfort you can feel coming off the pages. The sorry journey included fording swollen rivers, sweltering in vast deserts, and trying to ward off occasional Indigenous attacks.
Note: in his intro, Van Sciver acknowledges the portrayal, until relatively recently, of Indigenous people as wild, whooping caricatures: “It is important to acknowledge that these attitudes toward Indigenous people existed and that the legacy of colonization, forced displacement, and cultural assimilation is the root cause of the disparities faced by Indigenous populations.” From his book you can understand the attacks on endless intruding wagon trains. The westward-bound settlers were not only disrespecting Indigenous peoples’ land and sacred grounds, but mass-killing their buffalo.
When the Canarys reached Virginia City, the dad tried gold mining. Failing at that, he tried gambling: ditto. Mom took in laundry before dying of pneumonia. Jane took over the laundry, but when dad announced he was whisking them to Utah, she’d had it. The 14-year-old ran away. Joining a labour camp in Wyoming, she drove teams of oxen. With her whip, Jane “could pick a fly off an ox’s ear four times out of five!” Or so she claimed.
As a U.S. army scout, Jane rescued a general whose horse was shot out from under him. She herself narrowly escaped death at Little Big Horn. In Deadwood, she used a cleaver to subdue and deliver the murderer of Wild Bill Hickok to the hangman.
Exciting stuff, however much of it really happened. But a genuine life-changer occurred when Wild Bill Hickok invited Jane to join his show. Before that, in the man’s clothes she favoured wearing, Jane had incurred hostility. Seeing her scared, sweaty face, you share her uneasiness.
However, as a performer with Wild Bill, she could get away with being different. As Bill remarks, “We are the relics of a romanticized past. Characters who’ve cultivated incredible stories to tell the Eastern masses.”
About the Authors
Noah Van Sciver, a multiple award-winning cartoonist, first came to readers’ attention with his acclaimed comic book series Blammo. Known worldwide, his work has appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Best American Comics, Kramers Ergot, as well as countless graphic anthologies. In 2015 Noah was the artist in residence/fellow at The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont.
Dr. Susana Geliga, an enrolled member of the Sicangu Lakota, and of Borinken Taino descent, is a professor of the Department of History and Native American Studies at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and a co-director of the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She created the Little White Buffalo Project, a Lakota language and cultural preservation non-profit youth program in Rapid City, South Dakota.
About the Reviewer
Melanie Jackson is a freelance Vancouver writer/editor. She’s also the award-winning author of middle-grade/YA suspensers, including Orca Books’ Dinah Galloway Mystery Series, and several chillers set in amusement parks. Visit Melanie at The Writers’ Union of Canada.
Book Details
Publisher: TOON Books, December 23, 2025
Hardcover 80 pages
ISBN: 9781662665400