A goth teen, a recovering addict, and a clean-cut youth group leader battle Hell's outcasts in Youth Group, a zany graphic novel from writer and podcaster Jordan Morris (Bubble) and cartoonist Bowen McCurdy (Specter Inspectors). The trio's madcap demon-hunting adventures transport readers to a plague of demonic possessions in the 1990s.
Cynical, angsty Kay Radford agrees, at her mother's urging, to check out the youth group at local megachurch Stone Mission Church. She can tolerate some nerdy name tags, geeky songs, and ludicrous temptation charts to make her frazzled single mom happy. The evening after a first (terrible) meeting, Kay runs into the group leaders, squeaky-clean Meg and in-recovery Cortland, performing an exorcism in the woods: "Is this some immersive theater thing to convince me not to huff paint or something?" But it's no ploy--Meg and Cortland fight lesser demons. Unfortunately for Kay, it turns out she is a "blight," a human demons cannot possess but who can grant them freedom. Now that Kay is on the demons' radar, she must join Meg, Cortland and demon fighters from several different denominations to rid the '90s of evil.
McCurdy's comic-style art is the star of this show. The book's intended audience will not be personally familiar with the 1990s, but they will be enveloped in it through McCurdy's illustrations, which perfectly depict the clothing, hairstyles, even the pagers. A couple of threads in the storyline leave unanswered questions, but the teamwork between various religious sects develops a strong and satisfying theme of unity. Youth Group should appeal to those who enjoy the fantastical and watching good combat evil. --Jen Forbus, freelancer