Kate Beaton's latest takes readers far, indeed, from the familiar territory of her popular, short, witty, humor strips – to the oil sand fields of northern Alberta, Canada, in fact – in this hefty, 430 page, black & white (with plenty of nice half tones) graphic memoir.  Encompassing a period of two years – beginning back in 2005, when Beaton was faced with paying off astronomical college loans – Ducks is straightforward account of a woman in a man's world, working on the sands, that successfully walks the tightrope of providing a critical account – harsh when necessary – of the experience both of the work itself and, especially, of dealing with the all-pervasive gravitational field of male entitlement, without ever veering into the exploitative.  Readers can expect an engaging, detailed education of life in the Canadian north as experienced by a determined, intelligent – and vulnerable – young woman; conveyed by the talented, persuasive – and confident – cartoonist she grew to become.