Crucial Comix logo on a green background
$0.00 0

Cart

No products in the cart.

Published March 20, 2025

Shrink: Story of a Fat Girl

My experiences inhabiting a large body in a world that is constantly warning me about the medical and social dangers of being "too fat."

Excerpt from Shrink, reprinted courtesy of Graphic Mundi, © 2024 The Pennsylvania State University, pp 17-22, 42-57. Get the whole book here.

All the illustrations for this comic are in black and white, with thick linework and lots of spot black. In this scene of a crowd of urban people, a fat woman with curly hair looks up at the sky, a smile on her face. Text: I had always liked downtown Montreal when I was younger. My mom and I used to love looking at the beautiful clothing on mannequins in the high-end stores. It never occurred to me that she never took me inside because nothing would FIT me.The author, a voluptuous white woman with curly hair, pulls her hair up into a ponytail as she stares out a window. text: That's how my life has always been, though. I'd always been a window shopper: all the cool clothes never fit me. Plus-size clothes were always so dump and made for the strict purpose of covering everything up.A group of young people at a party touch each other and dance. Text: I had always just watched my friends get in relationships in high school. My crush told me he liked me, but only when we were alone. Then, after I hooped up with him, he started dating the popular girl. I was just practice. I watched thin girls get medals for spots, get the leads in plays, sing the colors in choir... I always felt like I was looking in from the outside.The author's back faces the reader as she stares at a huge ad featuring a very skinny woman in lingerie making sexy faces. Text: I saw all these happy women going in and out of stores with their big bags of clothes, and the happy models in the advertisements pasted everywhere I walked, and I couldn't help but think: I've never been that happy. In fact, it felt like the ads were staring back at me, like they were trying to convince me that I was different and didn't belong. And I was different, with only one glaring difference (or so I thought): I was FAT and they were THIN.An online ad promoting "woman goes viral for 150 lb weight loss" looms above the author, who looks blankly forward, wearing a loose jacket. text:

More Comics

© 2025 Crucial Comix
Privacy policy terms of use