Bob Dylan Comics: Jack-a-Roe
The story of a woman who risked everything for love
Hello friends! Hope you are staying warm (assuming you are somewhere cold, that is! Cold conditions are definitely happening where I am, in Calgary!).
Today, looking through my old drawing book, I see I’ve reached another few pages of Bob-Dylan-themed comics. This time, I illustrated the song Jack-a-Roe from Dylan’s 1993 album World Gone Wrong. This album, like his earlier album Good As I Been To You, features a collection of traditional cover songs: mostly old folk and blues songs. Earlier in the drawing book, I illustrated the song Canadee-I-O, from Good As I Been To You. Today, I’m sharing what I think of as Canadee-I-O’s companion song, Jack-a-Roe.
The two songs are both old folk ballads, and they’re both about women who dress up in sailor’s clothes so they can go off to sea. The nameless heroine of Canadee-I-O is longing for adventure, but the (also nameless) heroine of Jack-a-Roe is following her lover. I like these two brave women, and I like that Dylan chose to sing about their adventures, making them (I think) some of the strongest women characters in his catalogue of songs.
You can find out more about the history of the traditional song Jack-a-Roe here, and you can listen to Dylan’s version of the song here. As well, the Pod Dylan podcast just recently covered this pair of songs in a discussion with guest Jim Morrison. So you see I’m not the only one who thinks of them as a matching set of songs.
A couple of notes about this comic:
I got a couple of the lyrics wrong… oh well!
Once again my ship’s captain is inspired by Ciaran Hinds’ depiction of a sea captain in the 1995 movie Persuasion. The physician was inspired by a physician friend of mine.
The “sweethearts a-plenty” were real-life love interests of mine, from back then (ah, those were adventurous times!!). But Jack the sailor, in the comic, was inspired by a character in a story I was writing… of which more, some other time.
I left the third panel blank, because… who’s telling the story? I wasn’t sure.
The last two (empty) panels are my favourite part of the song. What could I possibly draw? The words in those last two panels change everything. You mean, this whole time, the singer has been waiting to twist the story around to suit his (or her) own purposes? The story of this faithful couple has just been a set-up for the narrator’s own pursuit of a relationship partner? Wow. Well done, is what I say. It was a great set-up. I hope the person that the narrator has been pursuing, said yes.
Wishing you success in all your adventurous quests, and your own devious set-ups! And… stay warm out there!