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Ink In Water: an illustrated memoir

Ink In Water: an illustrated memoir

$20.00

At once punk rock and poignant, Ink in Water is the visceral and groundbreaking graphic memoir of a young woman’s devastating struggle with negative body image and eating disorders, and how she rose above her own destructive behaviors and feelings of inadequacy to live a life of strength and empowerment. 


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“Lacy Davis and Jim Kettner are newcomers to the graphic novel scene, but Ink in Water will definitely make them a household name. An incredibly important, extremely relatable memoir about learning to love the hardest person of all: yourself.”
—Liz Prince, author of TomboyAlone Forever, and Will You Still Love Me If I Wet The Bed


Ink in Water is the candid and harrowing story of how young punk-feminist Lacy Davis won her life back from the jaws of an eating disorder. Artist Jim Kettner imbues each page with rich graytones, beautiful compositions, and characters so vivid, you could swear they were breathing. I recommend this to anyone with a body. It is a brave, beautiful, and important book.”
—Nicole J. Georges, author of the graphic novels Calling Dr. Laura and Fetch

“In Ink in Water, Lacy Davis and Jim Kettner tell a cautionary tale of how little armor punk-feminist politics provide against a self-destroying eating disorder...when those politics are not underpinned by truly knowing one’s own strength. For Lacy, it took a long, dark passage through feeling completely powerless—over herself and over her disease—and then, with the help of two crucial relationships, finding her own power deep inside to make her way out again. Kettner’s fluid, expressive, energetic artwork is a perfect vehicle for this journey: he draws Lacy’s pain—and her power—into every line in the book.”
—Jessica Abel, author of Growing GillsOut on the WireLa PerdidaTrish Trash, and coauthor of Drawing Words and Writing Pictures

"Young punk artist Davis experiences minor thoughts of dissatisfaction that gain an unfortunate hold in her psyche, eventually transforming into a full-blown eating disorder threatening to consume her. Gia, a groovy friend dealing with her own addictive struggles, refuses to allow Davis to wallow in misery, ultimately getting her in contact with the group Overeaters Anonymous (OA). Davis’s inner punk feels that OA is a betrayal of her basic operating principles. She doesn’t like the idea of surrendering herself to conventional spiritual forces, but she forges ahead with the group, incorporating her own DIY twists. After a while, she begins to stabilize and develops an incredible new relationship, but every step toward regaining normalcy creates prime situations for the doubts of addiction to haunt her. Both Davis’s story and the fantastic illustrations from Kettner (podcaster, Adult Crash) are compelling, funny, occasionally heartbreaking, and full of genuine hope in ways that most graphic memoirs never achieve artistically. Verdict: A beautifully realized biographical comic that tackles a tough subject head-on while offering no easy answers or stultifying platitudes. With aplomb, this work gives voice to humane, body-positive sincerity, capturing a condition that affects many. Don’t miss this one."
Library Journal Starred Review