Comic Book Review: Lumberjanes Volume 1: Beware the Kitten Holy Written by N.D. Stevenson & Grace Ellis, art by Gus Allen
Welcome to Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Girls Hardcore Lady Types! It’s a summer camp connected to the Lumberjanes organization, an outdoorsy scouting organization something like the Campfire Girls or Girl Guides. Here, hardcore lady types can learn valuable survival and crafting skills in a rustic environment. Our primary focus in these issues is on the five girls who inhabit the Roanoke Cabin.
They’ve become close friends very quickly (April and Jo knew each other before camp) and are racking up merit badges while going on adventures. It soon becomes apparent to them that this isn’t a normal camp, and there are many secrets to uncover (not all of them lethal.)
Ripley is the youngest and most hardcore of the lady types, willing to kick and climb and leap at the slightest opportunity. April is the most conventionally female-presenting of the girls, and the most interested in merit badges, but is very strong for her size. Jo is the most level-headed and good at building things. Molly is the tallest, and somewhat shy, being very attached to her coonskin cap. Mal has a bit of a punk sensibility but is afraid of large bodies of water, as she’s not a strong swimmer.
In the first issue, we join the gang in the middle of the night. They saw a woman outside their cabin who apparently turned into a bear and decided to follow her into the forest, promptly getting themselves lost. They have long since lost track of the bear, They are suddenly set upon by three-eyed foxes.
The girls put up a decent fight, though they’re severely outnumbered. When Ripley punches one of the foxes in its third eye, it vanishes and the other foxes deliver a strange message. “Beware the kitten holy.” Then they leave.
Baffled, the gang makes its weary way back to Roanoke Cabin, planning to sneak in while the counselor is asleep and claim they’d been there all night. Naturally, Jen, the counselor, is fully awake and very angry. She refuses to listen to their wild excuse and marches them straight over to the head counselor’s cabin. (I should mention that Jen, who is only slightly older than her campers, has never been to this camp before and has somehow missed the previous weird stuff.)
The head counselor, Rosie, is perhaps middle-aged and is the sort of woman who’s up before dawn doing wood carving with an axe. She’s initially dismissive of the girls’ jumbled exposition, but takes an interest when April mentions the bear woman. Rosie asks “Jane” (she is constantly getting Jen’s name wrong) to fetch some cocoa and gets the young women to tell their story in the proper order.
Rosie gets our five heroines to recite the Lumberjanes pledge, and asks them to remember it and stick together, no matter what inexplicable things might be happening. Apparently, she’s not calling their parents. Something is definitely up at this camp.
The second and third issues have the youngsters go on a canoe trip that abruptly turns into perilous whitewater rapids where none should be, and a sea serpent. Shipwrecked, our heroines wind up exploring an underground tunnel with tricks and traps. This gives them a clue as to what the “kitten holy” really is.
In the fourth issue, the campers are on a nature walk with Jen, who is really into plant identification. Bored and wanting to explore in forbidden territory, the girls run into what appears to be a yeti. Their flight from this fearsome beast winds up knocking all of them and Jen off a short cliff and into a clump of poison ivy.
Happily, a wandering squad of Scouting Boys just happen to be passing by, and invite their distaff counterparts to their camp, Mr. Theodore Tarquin Reginald Lancelot Herman Crumpet’s Camp for Boys. While some of the girls are suspicious about this convenient coincidence, Jen is impressed by the boys’ politeness and actually wearing their uniforms.
After a quick round of first aid and some fresh cookies, as well as a couple of introductions (the boy who’s going to be important later is Barney), the Scouting Boys’ camp director stomps in. He’s a man’s man, hairy, muscular and eyepatched. He’s also a misogynist and kind of weird about it. None of the boys seem to like him. He stomps back out to, supposedly, fish by stealing the catch from a bear.
The girls convince the boys to distract Jen for a bit so they can investigate the nearby lighthouse for clues. Which would work out better if the Scouting Boys didn’t have a habit of turning into ravening beserkers. Some action later, Jen now believes that there actually is something weird going on, and the Roanoke Cabin has a moment of peace.
But this is clearly only the beginning. It’s going to be a long, long summer.
The ancillary material mimics a scouting manual, explaining the various merit badge requirements and the expected behavior of Lumberjanes. There’s concept art and an extensive cover gallery. (At least one of the campers drastically changed from the early concept.)
The art here is cartoonish, which contrasts with the more trippy monster designs. It works well here, though I am told the later issues have several different artists.
The primary audience is girls from middle grade to young adult, though older readers will find enough depth to keep them interested. Younger readers might need a little adult guidance.
Conservative parents might find this a harder sell. This is very much a modern feminist story reflecting current culture. There’s a certain amount of character diversity that’s just taken as a matter of course, some of it only hinted at in this volume. This scouting organization is lax on uniform rules (we only see the campers in uniform once) and the “line about God” has been scratched from the Lumberjanes pledge. And the character who’s most concerned with “traditional” manliness is clearly unbalanced and probably a villain.
Content note: Children in peril, violence against what appear to be animals. (It’s noted that the Lumberjanes have a rule against “animal-punching.”)
This is an interesting series that looks like it will reward a reading. Most recommended to girls in their early teens, but should work for any fan of contemporary fantasy.
