Jordan Morris’ new graphic novel, Youth Group, depicts a church group that prays by day and hunts demons at night. In a recent interview with Insights, Mr Morris said he drew some inspiration from his own upbringing in the church.
“In high school I was part of a goofy teen Bible study, and it always struck me as a good setting for a story,” Mr Morris said.
“Not only was it filled with great comedy potential (anyone else’s youth group sing parodies of popular songs with Bible specifics?) but it loaded with big, dramatic teen feelings. I love horror comedies like Shaun of the Dead and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so it seemed like a fun challenge to graft some religious horror tropes onto my teenage experience.”
“When you see religious young people in media, they’re usually really broad and punchline-y,” he said.
“I do think these kinds of cartoon-ier characters can be very funny (Rod and Todd Flanders will always make me laugh) but they’d be hard to root for as the protagonists of a story. Since we’re following these kids for an entire narrative, I wanted to give them some layers and let them make some surprising choices.”
Jordan Morris has worked in comics, podcasts, and a range of other media. He told Insights he mainly sees Youth Group’s story as deliverable in comics.
“I think a story like this works great for comics because, in my experience, comics readers are a little more accepting of stories that don’t fit super neatly into a specific genre,” Mr Morris said.
“Youth Group is kind of an odd duck tone-wise. It’s a little too joked to be considered pure horror and a little too spooky to be considered a pure comedy. “
“You’ll notice when comics get adapted into other media, their weirder edges tend to get sanded off into something that’s a little more digestible. That being said, I think there can be great adaptations of comics and I’d love to take on the challenge! But if this story ends up only existing as comics I’m very happy because comics are awesome.”
While an adaptation seems unlikely, Mr Morris said he would love to eventually revisit the characters.
“I love the goofballs in this book so much and would be thrilled to come up with more stories for them,” he said.
“We don’t have anything in the works at the moment but hopefully Youth Group finds its audience and there’s demand for more!”
“I’d love to do an in-universe story set at a Christian Summer Camp or maybe a Christian version of a Warped Tour-like music festival. If you dig the book, please tell a friend, share on social media, leave a good review, etc.”
“I’d love to acknowledge the amazing work of Bowen McCurdy, the artist of this book. Their characters are so lively and expressive, a wonderful fit for the character-based comedy in the story. The little details they added constantly delight me.”
“There’s a panel that shows in the inside of a fridge and it’s a completely ordinary suburban fridge but so lovingly drawn and detailed. Seriously, I can’t wait for people to see this fridge.”
Youth Group releases on 16 July 2024. It is available from Amazon here.
