A Youth Group worth visiting

Review: Youth Group 

Jordan Morris’ new graphic novel, Youth Group, depicts a church group that prays by day and hunts demons at night. 

When Kay reluctantly agreed to join the youth group at Stone Mission Church in Orange County California, she expected the Jesus talk and the dorky singalongs and the colorful posters about dodging temptation. What she didn’t expect was to stumble on her youth group leaders, Meg and Cortland, in the middle of a read-deal exorcism. Turns out they’re both soldiers in a secret organization of demon hunters in a war that’s heating up, and even if Kay wanted to stay on the sidelines, she doesn’t have a choice — she’s a “Blight,” a human who demons can’t possess, and apparently that’s made her a target.   

As this desription might suggest, Youth Group mixes humour and horror to tell a story about putting aside differences to overcome evil. What makes this work stand out is the unique perspective. It is not a piece that seeks to sheerly mock people of faith from the outside, instead going for the kind of gentle satire that people within churches will appreciate. 

Bowen “Bones” McCurdy provides the graphic novel’s artwork, which is beautifully coloured. Bones’ work is amazingly detailed, especially for such a cartoony style. A number of encounters with demons stand out among the book’s best pages. 

Complaints are few, but a small gripe is that Youth Group is sometimes anachronistic. At one point, the protagonist mentions she will not stay with the group if they say anything against same-sex marriage. While this is in keeping with her character, this was not a headline-gathering issue in the mid 1990s. Perhaps this kind of slippage might be expected, however, from a comic book aiming to address a contemporary audience. 

Youth Group is clearly aimed at a Young Adults audience, and would find its peak audience among members of your church’s own youth group. 

Youth Group is available now on Amazon.