Water Baby

2008 graphic novel by Ross Campbell. Water Baby follows a few unusual days in the lives of surfer girls Brody and Louisa. When Brody's surfing days are cut short by a shark making a snack out of her left leg, things could only go uphill, right?

Wrong.

Now not only does she have to get used to the simple concept of walking again with a prosthetic leg that she hates wearing, but her jerk ex-boyfriend Jake has come for an impromptu visit, and she's begun having increasingly freakier shark-related nightmares and hallucinations. When Jake's mooching reaches an all-time high, Brody's patience finally runs out, and so begins a car-trip adventure up to New York...


 * Ambiguously Brown: Brody. We see both her parents, and they're both distinctly different, but their specific ethnicities are never brought up.
 * Actually, her last name is Arakawa which is Japanese so thats probably her dad's race. And its a safe bet her mom is African American, so yeah.
 * An Arm and a Leg
 * Artificial Limbs: Brody's prosthetic leg.
 * Bald Women: Brody shaves her head completely after being discharged from the hospital. May also count as Bald of Awesome.
 * Bi the Way: Chrissy, towards Louisa.
 * The Cameo: Outside of Water Baby, in Wet Moon, Campbell's more well-known series. Brody makes a cameo in Volume 3 as one of Fall's friends, Louisa shows up in Volume 5 as a member of the Worm Lizards softball team. Conversely, Natalie gets a verbal cameo here.
 * Disabled Means Helpless: Mostly averted. Brody's still pretty capable with just one leg, and frequently insists on getting around with minimal help, even just a few days after she's lost it.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Chrissie does not take being turned down well.
 * Everything's Even Worse with Sharks
 * Girlish Pigtails: Chrissie's default hairstyle.
 * The Goggles Do Nothing: Chrissie again, with her huge Elton John sunglasses.
 * Gorn: A lot of the shark-attack nightmares are quite vividly detailed.
 * Hollywood Pudgy: Sort of. Brody calls Louisa "fat" a few times in (lighthearted) insult, despite Louisa not being even close (she does have sort of pudgy cheeks). A little odd considering the high BBW quotient in some of Campbell's other work.
 * Ladette: Brody definitely qualifies.
 * Les Yay: Between Brody and Louisa. Lampshaded at one point by Brody. Ultimately disproven, they're just good friends.
 * Love It or Hate It: Most peoples reaction to the story.
 * Overdrawn At the Blood Bank: Averted. Brody understandably loses a LOT of blood after her leg's been bitten off, but it's still within realism.
 * Really Gets Around: Implied for both Chrissie and Jake.
 * Shout-Out: To Wet Moon. Louisa is at one point seen with shorts bought in that series' titular town, and some of the infamous "Cleo Eats It" graffiti is seen in a gas stop restroom. In a nod to Star Trek, Brody cracks "you will be assimilated" soon after getting her prosethetic leg.
 * Surfer Girls: Brody and Louisa, though not in the usual way. They are literally just girls who enjoy surfing.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Instances between Brody and Louisa. Their arguments with each other often quickly degenerate into punching and name-calling.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Instances between Brody and Louisa. Their arguments with each other often quickly degenerate into punching and name-calling.