Rent Girl is the boldly illustrated saga of one broke baby dyke trying to make a buck in the surreal world of the sex industry.
Avoiding the stereotypes of prostitute as victim or superhero, Michelle Tea instead explores the complicated occupation in all its nuances —absurd, somber, hilarious, disturbing.
When Michelle, a young Boston baby dyke, needs money, her adventuresome girlfriend suggests taking up a secretive career in the world of escort services. Her misadventures through her years in the sex trade are at times, humorous, tantalizing, and heartbreaking.
Constantly struggling between the worlds of poverty and prostitution, Michelle must make the eventual decision to stay in the business with its financial freedoms or quit for spiritual serenity.
I dealt with a lot of prostitutes when I was young...I always felt like a commodity in reverse, like a sucker. When I experienced the joy of reading Rent Girl that old feeling of physical indifference came back.
Robert Williams
Michelle Tea is the author of ten books of memoir, fiction and poetry, including the cult classic Valencia, the essay collection How to Grow Up and the hybrid novel Black Wave. Her writing has appeared in Harpers, Cosmopolitan, The Believer, Marie Claire, n+1 and other print and web magazines. She lives in Los Angeles.
Laurenn McCubbin lives in Columbus. where she teaches art school kids to make comics and hangs out with two dogs and a husbadger. She does large scale installation art, designs feminist zines in the back of comic books and continues to draw.
