NG: I was going to ask you where you end and she begins? What parts of your story do you see in her, or the people around her? So it was really the events that came to me first, but I knew I wanted that kind of character at the center of it. I knew I wanted a protagonist that’s not exactly me, but I picture her as this passive person to whom events are taking place and she’s responding to them based on these voices that she hears through her friends or through church or whatever. Nicole Georges: Did Lauren, the main character, come to you or did the events come to you first? The conversation centered around the release of Rave-Campbell’s mordant and striking tale of a young woman coming of age within an evangelical, small-town community.īoth authors spoke about the risks of telling stories informed by truth, the grueling process of editing comics, and their respective relationships with their tumultuous religious backgrounds. Rave is an instant classic, a coming-of-age story about the secret spaces young women create and the wider social structures that fail them.Jessica Campbell ( Rave) and Nicole Georges ( Fetch) spoke to one another as part of D+Q Live, a spring event series by the graphic novel publisher Drawn & Quarterly. She captures teenage antics and banter with astute comedic style, simultaneously skewering bullies, a culture of slut-shaming, and the devastating impact of religious zealotry. Afterward, a potent blend of Christian guilt and internalized homophobia causes Lauren to question the experience.Īuthor Jessica Campbell ( XTC69 ) uses frankness and dark humor to articulate Lauren's burgeoning crisis of faith and sexuality.

That evening, Mariah gives Lauren a makeover and the two melt into each other, in what becomes Lauren’s first queer encounter.

Mariah has dial-up internet, an absentee mom, and a Wiccan altar-the perfect setting for a study session and sleepover to remember. She’s a devout member of an evangelical church, but when her Bible-thumping parents forbid Lauren to bring evolution textbooks home, she opts to study at her schoolmate Mariah’s house. Lauren is fifteen, soft-spoken, and ashamed of her body. A queer coming-of-age story, complete with secret cigarettes, gross gym teachers, and a lot of church

Rave jessica campbell