Posted in: Comics | Tagged: graphic novel, jonathan dyck, shelterbelts

Shelterbelts – a Mennonite Graphic Novel by Jonathan Dyck

Published Wed, 15 Dec 2021 11:27:11 -0600

Shelterbelts is a new graphic novel by cartoonist Jonathan Dyck being published by Conundrum in May that intends to weave together vignettes from a fictional Mennonite community in a rural town in southern Manitoba, where a Christian megachurch sets up and ignites tensions between the more traditional and progressive within the faith, and within families.

Fractures form in a tight-knit Mennonite community, echoing the struggles experienced in small towns across North America When a non-denominational megachurch opens on the edges of a rural Mennonite community, a quiet―but longstanding―battle begins to reveal itself. For years, the traditionalists in the community have held fast to the values and beliefs they grew up with, while other community members have begun raising important questions about LGBTQ+ inclusion, Indigenous land rights, and the Mennonite legacy of pacifism. Through a series of vignettes, Shelterbelts explores the perspectives, experiences and limitations of a wide range of characters who find themselves increasingly at odds with their surroundings. A pastor and his queer daughter learn that a family has left their church because of the "LGBT issue." Young activists butt heads with a farmer over the construction of a pipeline happening on his fields. A librarian leaves suggestive notes for readers inside popular library books. By pulling these threads together, artist Jonathan Dyck has woven a rich tapestry―one that depicts a close-knit community in the midst of defining its future as it reckons with its past.

Jonathan Dyck is an illustrator, designer and cartoonist working in Winnipeg, MB in Treaty 1 territory and the homeland of the Métis Nation. Shelterbelts is a series of interconnected short stories — fictional comics — that take place in southern Manitoba, where Mennonites from Russia began to settle en masse beginning in the 1870s. Excerpts from the stories "Better Times" and "Minnows" have been previously published in Hamilton Arts & Letters and Broadview Magazine and the graphic novel collection received funding from the Manitoba Arts Council. He is also creating a similarly themed graphic memoir, exploring Mennonite history, migration and colonialism with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. Shelterbelts is published on the 10th of May, 2022.

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