2008 graphic novel by Sophie 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 prosethetic 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...
Water Baby contains the following tropes:
- An Arm and a Leg
- Artificial Limbs: Brody's prosthetic leg.
- Brick Joke: Brody did Jake's dad.
- 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.
- Friends with Benefits: When asked by Chrissie, Louisa admits that she and Brody had a fling a few years back. There still seem to be lingering feelings on both sides. A different situation pops up with Jake, Brody's ex, who seems to have become a friend after the relationship ended.
- 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.- Not to mention the initial shark attack. You can see the shark bite off Brody's leg, as well as the trail of blood when she's dragged out of the ocean.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Between Brody and Louisa. Even brought up in conversation at one point by Brody.
- I Banged Your Dad!: Brody ends up truthfully yelling this to Jake as they part ways.
- Lad-ette: Brody definitely qualifies.
- 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.
- She also quips "I am The Bionic Woman" a little after getting her prosthetic 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.
