Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands — Kate Beaton. Beaton’s new graphic memoir tells a much more serious and heartrending tale of her time after art school, trying to pay off her debt in a very isolating and lonely job. She, like many people from her small Canadian village, heads west to Alberta for work, taking advantage of the oil rush to get a high-paying job to pay back her student loans as quickly as possible.