This graphic novel is not billed as a biography, probably because Martha Jane Cannary was often a teller of tall tails, and some of the source documents used are from a slew of letters she wrote to her daughter throughout her life. She was the oldest of six children. Her parents were quite poor and the family eventually headed West in a small wagon, staying for a time in a gold-mining camp in Montana. When that didn't work out, they continued on towards Salt Lake City, but Martha Jane's mother died during the trip. A year later to the day, her father died as well, leaving Martha Jane in charge of her five younger sibs.
Thus starts the bleak life of this young woman, who ended up leaving her siblings and looking for work far away. She was feisty and hard-drinking, and often mistaken for a man because of the clothing she wore. Sometimes she wanted to be taken for a man in order to get the kind of work she preferred. She told people she was married to Wild Bill Hickok and that he was the father to her daughter Jane. Maybe, who knows?
She earned the nickname "Calamity Jane" from a captain after she'd left an army convoy because of an altercation, and when a military group tried to find her, they were ambushed by Cheyennes.
Not a fun read, but the drawings are quite detailed and the story is engaging.
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