A group of "dorky demon fighters" face the forces of darkness in Youth Group - a new horror comedy that's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina"

Art from Youth Group
(Image credit: First Second)

A skeptical teenager is forced into joining a lame church youth group only to discover that it's really a front for a secretive organization of demon hunters in a new horror comedy graphic novel coming soon from First Second.

Youth Group is written by Jordan Morris, the co-host of the hit Jordan, Jesse, Go! podcast, and drawn by the YALSA award-winning artist Bowen (Bones) McCurdy. We've got an exclusive preview below, but first here's Morris to tell us a little bit about the new book...

"Youth Group is the story of a young skeptic who has to join a very dorky group of demon fighters with a cringe-inducing amount of enthusiasm who operate out of her local church. Though their ideologies often clash, they must find a way to work together to achieve the shared goal of not getting killed by hell-beasts."

Art from Youth Group

(Image credit: First Second)

Introducing our preview, Morris said: "This is one of my favorite sections of the book. Our skeptical goth-y hero, Kay, is about to perform her first exorcism with the help of her too-peppy Youth Group leader, Meg. Kay is what the demons in our story call a 'Blight,' a human that can't be possessed, so she's uniquely qualified to mess them up. I love how expressive Bowen's characters are in this section and the nod to a famous shot from The Exorcist."

"This was any artist's dream collaboration, with such a kind and talented writer to boot," added Bowen McCurdy separately in a statement about the book. "Jordan's characters are immediately lovable and relatable, regardless of their faiths and/or demon-butt-kicking abilities. I'm so grateful to have been able to bring to life his goofy, affectionate, wild ride of a story."

Youth Group is published as a 256-page graphic novel by First Second on July 16, and is available in both paperback and hardcover editions.


In the mood for more demon hunting? Find out more about LySandra Vuong's hit web comic Covenant, which was recently published in print.

Will Salmon
Comics Editor

Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.