Call Me Bill

And today's pick is Call Me Bill by Lynette Richards, with an introduction by Emily Burton Rocha. This relatively short YA graphic novel was published in 2022 by Emanata in the lead up to the 150th anniversary of the crash of the SS Atlantic.

I initially picked this volume up two years ago and have been meaning to review it ever since. Well new year new me LOL and I've checked it out of the library again to refresh my memory. This being my second review of 2025 to involve sailors. I'm left wondering what other nautical comics I can pick up to make it my theme of 2025! Leave recommendations in the comments if you have any.

Content Notes for mass casualties, using queer in a negative way, and cursive.

Keywords that came to mind: disaster, rescue, globe trotting, gender, and sailors.

Looking at the creative behind the page (and other contributors):

As the summary points out, this is Richards' debut work, although she brings to it 30 years of experience working professionally with stained glass. Flipping to their bio in the back of the book "Richards has been cartooning her whole life. She chose stained glass as her professional medium because it was both a trade and an art. She was fully aware, too, that stained glass windows have used sequential narration for over 1000 years, and are essentially, early graphic novels!"

In an interview with Richards on Global News Morning Halifax, Richards explained how the research she conducted after joining the board of the museum commemorating this disaster in Terrance Bay and her own experience as a lesbian woman coming up in a male dominated field lead her to write this particular story.

Looking at her profile working at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Emily is described as an Oral Historian with a doctorate from Dalhousie University in Canadian History.

Moving along to the writing section of this review. It definitely reads as younger YA. The coming of age aspect feels more aspirational then nostalgic as it were, and there is a certain simplicity to it all. Drawbacks for me as a millennial, but not necessarily a critique in context.

Given this target demographic though the page of not terribly clear and cramped cursive writing is a real drawback.

Art wise, an interesting spectrum of grey tones and energetic lines. Page layouts were a bit oversized but also nicely varied.

Looking at gender in historic contexts can be a touchy subject, even if you completely ignore all the really silly people who claim that any sort of gender diversity beyond the current cultural constructs never existed before now. There's plenty of evidence to the contrary but whatever, they refuse to be convinced. That said how people have understood gender and sexuality has morphed and changed steadily through space and times. So while there have always been people existing outside of the rigid binaries people are currently looking to uphold, it can be hard to discuss them, and it is often hard to guess exactly how these individuals would or would not relate to the current discourse.

Overall I would say I felt like Call Me Bill balances things fairly adeptly. On the one hand the foundation for the story is historic fact and on the other brave imagination, with a powerful integration of primary documents. Daring to say in the face of rising transphobia, what if. And telling a real page turner in the process.

Looking at race and class, there is a dash of light intersectional analysis that pops up throughout. That said, I would have liked to see the characters of Cicely and her husband a bit more developed. As it stands, Cicely in particular felt a bit like a cardboard cut out of a freed Black woman/housekeeper that just served to push our protagonist out into his adventures.

Call Me Bill also felt fairly grounded. Bill does a lot of traveling so it's not like we set down roots anywhere, but at the same time every event happens in a defined place and time and isn't just floating in an unnamed character centric space.

Class wasn't directly discussed but the story was pretty well steeped in working class reality. Similarly, sexuality was a passing mention as our protagonist is not really interested in that sort of thing but they do run into at least one working class queer community in their travels.

I seem to recall some nods to the reality of being less then perfectly able bodied but I don't remember exactly.

Wrapping things up. I think I've said everything I wanted to. I feel a bit silly with how long it took me to finally do this review but it is easier to consume then to consume, reflect, chew for a bit, maybe research some more and then regurgitate an opinion. Edit etc.

As far as a rating goes I would say it was different and interesting so four stars.