The former was made into an Apple TV+ series called Pinecone & Pony released in 2022 on which Beaton worked as an executive producer.

[4] Beaton began drawing comics for the university newspaper, The Argosy, during her third and fourth years at school.

[2][5] After graduating from Mount Allison in 2005 Beaton worked at an oil sands mining project in Fort McMurray to pay off her student loans.

[6][7] In 2007, while still working at the Maritime Museum of BC, Beaton decided to publish some of her history-inspired comics on the Web.

In December of that year, she published the first of two popular batches of history-themed comic strips, whose subjects were ones suggested by at least twenty of her readers.

[9] Its subjects included historical figures, such as James Joyce[10] and Ada Lovelace,[11] or fictional characters from Western literature.

Beaton has a simple artistic style, with particular attention to detail paid to her characters' facial expressions; her skill at comic pacing has also been noted.

[15] "The Origin of Man", her comic celebrating Charles Darwin's 200th birthday, was showcased by MySpace Dark Horse Presents in March 2009.

"[23] Beaton's self-published Never Learn Anything from History won the 2009 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent.

A Vagrant comics, topped The New York Times graphic novel bestseller list in October 2015.