The Fat Girl Love Club

(Spoiler alert) A comic series where Becky is a sheltered young high school girl with a deep but perhaps warped romantic devotion to Jesus that she expresses in a fan fiction blog. Her overbearing and controlling mother is arrested for committing fraud at a local flea market. She is sent to live with her estranged grandfather who has a daily cannabis habit and a penchant for conspiracy theories. Partly due to his influence and a bullying incident at school, Becky befriends a couple of classmates, Sasha and Josh, who prefer to entertain themselves with drugs over attending youth group activities. After Sasha has a particularly traumatic drug experience, Sasha determines that the path they're on is wrong and vows to give up the party life in favor of the more wholesome but condescending youth group crowd.

However, Becky is still intrigued by the perspective she believes drugs have brought to her and her newly awakened freedom. She is also still coming to terms with her own sexuality and possible feelings for Josh. Additionally, she is struggling to better understand her faith and what Jesus wants for her life. She believes drugs may provide that insight. After a run-in with a mysterious and disturbed boy in town, she makes the impulsive decision to try something more mind-altering and powerful and convinces Josh to join her.

That experience goes tragically wrong and coincides with the release of her mother from prison. Her mother is shocked to find her daughter has been living a life of sin in her absence. After recovering from the drama of her brief experience on the wild side of high school, Becky settles back into her old life but clearly changes. In what might be described as a moment of epiphany inspired by her experience, Becky takes comfort in her discovery of her own beliefs as well as the unexpected popularity of her online fan fiction.

Gabby Metzler is a CCAD grad, winner of the 2020 SPACE Prize and CXC Emerging Artist award, a colorist for DC's "Whistle" which is really cool and you should read. She's also a 212 resident and hosts the reading series Peztilence to honor and enjoy comics artists. Her hobbies include reading self-help books for other people, watching Bob's Burgers, and yelling the phrase "I thought I could change them!" at distant thunderstorms.