Spontaneous travelling
On the road with Michael Kluckner—and catching up with the latest crop of graphic novels.
October 13th, 2026
By David Lester
With sketchbook in hand, Michael Kluckner travels on his own terms in Winging It: Travelling Without Reservations. He challenges the reader “What if you don’t want to commit to six days in a Paris hotel followed by four days in an Airbnb in Lyon, moving on a schedule laid out in advance?” What if you want to “Take your chances on finding a place to sleep? Move along as the spirt moves you?’ Thus begins travelling the world with Kluckner and Christine Allen, his partner of 50 years.
The romance of travel includes: being double booked at a casa particulare in Cuba; eating guinea pig (cuy) in Peru; finding last minute accommodation at a seniors’ retirement home in France; outsmarting a cyclone in New Zealand; and discovering a monkey is trying to drink your beer in Bali, as the café owner shrugs, “It is the way of the monkey.” These stories brim with the enjoyment and affection of two seasoned adventurers. The reader joins them in Greece, India, Normandy, Australia, Mexico and onward.
In a wild last-minute decision to catch a Rene Magritte exhibit in Bern, Switzerland, Kluckner noted it “gave us the pleasure of the unexpected and the satisfaction that we had turned a journey that was going nowhere into one with excellent memories.” At a station in India, their train arrived slowly but didn’t actually stop. Christine leapt onto the carriage steps. As the train picked up speed, Kluckner “panicked and ran forward to the other end of the carriage. With one hand grabbing the railing I got a foot on the step and swung myself and my bag inside.”
Though not strictly a graphic novel, Winging It combines art and text in a way that defines the very essence of this genre. Kluckner’s evocative sketches allow the reader to share his visceral experiences in a very different way then the often generic quality of holiday snaps. Kluckner observes, “When you stop and draw something, or write about it, it sticks in your mind.”
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Michael Kluckner’s graphic novels include The Bund: A Graphic History of Jewish Labour Resistance (Between The Lines, 2023), written by Sharon Rudahl and Paul Buhle; The Rooming House: The West Coast in the Seventies (Midtown, 2018), which was a BC bestseller; Julia (Midtown, 2018) about the life of novelist Julia Henshaw; 2050: A Post-Apocalyptic Murder Mystery (Midtown, 2016); Toshiko (Midtown, 2015), focusing on Japanese Canadians in BC during the Second World War.
BC BookWorld spoke with Kluckner about the secrets of spontaneous travel.
BC BookWorld: The concept of “winging it” in regards to travel, seems a radical idea in a time where so much of travel is pre-packaged, luxury, all-inclusive, and panders to self-gratification rather than adventure. Are you a radical traveller?
Michael Kluckner: We’re not into luxury (even if we could afford it) must-see “bucket list” trips, especially resorts and cruises, and lavish dining has little appeal for us. Why would we want to see well-off people “having fun,” arghhhh? Winging it seems radical to some of our friends, but to us it’s an upscale version of the backpacking days of our youth, where we wandered and adventured in a completely unfettered way.
BW: Any tips you care to share about travelling and drawing?
MK: My travel sketching has evolved considerably over 50 years. I used to carry quite large home-made watercolour sketchbooks and paint a lot of landscapes—urban and countryside. I’m now more interested in drawing people and vignettes—a donkey on the side of a road, say—that will trigger memories.
Gradually my kit has shrunk to a small Moleskine sketchbook and a collection of pencils and pens, with the idea of them fitting into a small backpack weighing about six pounds, my only luggage. There is nothing worse for “winging it” than heavy bags. And you can always tell yourself as your clothes get shabby, “These people are never going to see me again.”
Roadside lunch somewhere in Normandy, 2023. Art by Michael Kluckner.
BW: Do you find drawing when you travel to be more compelling than photography?
MK: The act of drawing, of slowing down long enough to get a sketch underway, fixes a place and an experience in my mind. On a typical day I might start several sketches and then add to them from memory in the hotel room that evening, maybe not finishing them until much later. Photos have their place, but often the quick snapshot is so forgettable—“where was that one?”—and when people take so many, their memories blur. A sketch, especially if it becomes a kind of cartoon like many in the book, can tell a story.
BW: How do you and your partner Christine decide where you’ll travel?
MK: We’re off-season or “shoulder season” travellers, and try to go to countries when monsoons and heat waves are less likely—an increasingly difficult task with climate change, which is one of the themes of a few chapters in the book, including a cyclone in New Zealand and a hurricane in Cuba which would have thwarted any itinerary.
We go to places when they are as “natural” as possible, even if it means the shorter days of their mild winter. And there are elements in our past, such as Christine’s study of Indonesia at university and my fascination with Japanese ink painting, that make places a destination.
BW: Travelling can be a real test as to the durability and compatibility of a couple. Was travelling a link you and Christine shared from the beginning?
MK: We had travelled alone and with previous partners before we got together. It was finding our compatibility—that we both wanted to wander, that we both liked modest, family-owned hotels and cottages, that we had little desire to eat and drink like gourmets, that we liked trains and buses but could share the driving if we decided on the spur of the moment to rent a car—that made us wing it over so many trips and years.
BW: What is your next travelling adventure?
MK: We’re probably going more often now to “the places we’ve saved for our old age” because of similar language and culture. A recent trip was New Zealand. Next stop, Ireland. But…you never know.
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Tropical Australia near Cairns, 2009. Art by Michael Kluckner.
Lost Harbour by Mike Deas and Nancy Deas (Orca $16.95)
In this seventh book in the The Sueño Bay Adventure series, our heroes, Jenna, Ollie, Kay, and Sleeves become intrigued by a book of Sueño Bay mysteries, especially the story about Jenny Mathers, who vanished without a trace years ago. The gang heads up the island in their trusty go-cart to investigate. Mike (artist) and Nancy (writer) Deas live on Saltspring Island, BC. For ages 6-8. 9781459837843
Lost Harbour by Mike Deas and Nancy Deas (Orca)
Inbetweens: A Graphic Novel (First Second $22.99) by Faith Erin Hicks
Twin sisters Sloane and Ash love drawing, but that doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be good at it. At their summer animation classes, Sloane excels at her art, while Ash struggles with the anxiety of her own expectations. How will this play out? Vancouver-based Faith Erin Hicks is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling writer and artist of over a dozen books. For ages: 10-14 years. 9781250838742
Close On A Full Moon (Cloudscape $25) by Amy Longo
The teenage crew working for minimum-wage at Big Burger restaurant faces workplace harassment, and supernatural horror in this story of friendship and coming of age under capitalism. Amy Longo lives in Pitt Meadows, BC. 9781927742686
Love in the Time of Covid (Jeffrey Ellis $10) by Jeff Ellis
The year is 2020, the Covid 19 pandemic is underway and, feeling isolated after a recent breakup, Micheal Lee decides to try online dating. In part a book about being alone during the pandemic and a critique of online dating. Is there still space for human connection and love? Jeff Ellis is also one of the founders of the Cloudscape Comics Society in Vancouver. Contact: www.jeff-ellis.ca
The Big Soup: Growing Up Autistic (Cloudscape $35) by Matthew Nielsen
Growing up with autism, our protagonist faces the challenges of his parents first getting him diagnosed, and then finding an appropriate, supportive school. A compassionately told memoir of empathy, anger management, and respect. Matthew Nielsen, is a Welsh-Canadian comic artist. 9781927742662
The Big Soup: Growing Up Autistic by Matthew Nielsen (Cloudscape)
Dancing with the Sheyd (Inservice Comics $40) by Rotem Anna Diamant
Victoria-based Rotem Anna Diamant’s memoir (part folklore, part pop culture parable) of growing up Jewish and queer in Winnipeg. Diamant is a multidisciplinary artist and librarian who creates comics focused on themes of identity. 9781069692610
Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me (Freehand, 2010) by Sarah Leavitt
Not a new book, but a film version of it is. Sarah Leavitt’s Tangles was screened at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival where it received a seven-minute standing ovation. The animated film is directed by Vancouver-based Leah Nelson and stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Seth Rogen. Leavitt’s remarkable graphic memoir documents a woman’s experience caring for a mother with dementia. 9781551111179
Still from the animated feature film Tangles
The Case of David Zimmerman (Arsenal Pulp $47.95) by Lucas Harari and Arthur Harari / Translated by David Homel
Though not a BC-authored book, it is published by Vancouver-based Arsenal Pulp Press. The Case of David Zimmerman is a compelling mystery that follows thirties-something Paris photographer David who observes a woman at a party, only to wake up the next day in the body of that woman. The Unknown, a feature film adaptation of The Case of David Zimmerman, is being released in 2026. 9781834050348
The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad, A Graphic Novel (Beacon $24.95) by David Lester
Full disclosure, I’m the editorial designer of BC BookWorld, and this is my most recent book, which tells the story of how enslaved Africans on board the Amistad rebelled and captured the slave ship in 1839 and eventually won their freedom and returned to Africa. The Black Schooner was created with historians Marcus Rediker and Paul Buhle. 9780807016909
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