For his first monthly ongoing series, Bryan Lee O’Malley joins Leslie Hung to explore the world of fashion blogging. More accurately, O’Malley explores his usual themes of identity, maturity, and relationships with a strong fashion sense and a whole lot of bodily fluids.
Written by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Illustrated by Leslie Hung and Mickey Quinn
WHO IS LOTTIE PERSON? Is she a gorgeous, fun-loving social media star with a perfect life or a gross, allergy-ridden mess? Enter a world of snot, blood, and tears in this new ongoing series from New York Times Best Seller BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY (Scott Pilgrim) and dazzling newcomer LESLIE HUNG!
Lottie Person is constantly lying. Not only to herself as she crafts an elaborate and fabulous life around herself, but also to the fans of her fashion blog as she tries to present herself as an idealized person. “On my blog, I’m perfect,” she tells us. “My nose never runs. Every hair on my head is exactly where it’s supposed to be. The illusion is seamless!” In real life, however, Lottie’s falling apart. Her friends keep ditching her. Her boyfriend has left her for a younger girl — who Lottie happily notes at least isn’t as pretty as her. And she has allergies. Horrible horrible allergies.
In short, Lottie Person is a Bryan Lee O’Malley character, one who has carved out a world for herself that only Hell or high water will get her to leave. And then, everything is interrupted when cool girl Caroline enters the scene.
Everything O’Malley and Hung do in this book revolves around Lottie trying to control the look of the world. She’s a ridiculously unreliable narrator and while her constant self-gratification might make her off-putting, it makes this book a lot of fun to read. Even though, of course, it’s only an opening chapter and who knows where O’Malley and Hung are planning to take it.
Hung’s style is heavily manga-influenced, complete with sparkles all over the panel and characters with glistening, shimmering, watery eyes. Everyone is cute, because Lottie only surrounds herself with attractive people, and shallow. They’re able to pull off clothes that look like they belong in Candyland and just put together for each and every circumstance, no matter how harrowing. It makes sense that Lottie, constantly creating an idealized version of her life, would create this fantasy world around herself — like she came out of a Sailor Moon story or something — to help her process growing up.
You know, just like Scott Pilgrim and video games.
All this is made especially interesting when reality comes crashing in on Lottie. Hung and O’Malley break away from the glamour and kawaii construction on a few occasions, and I think it’s here that we most see the kind of person Lottie is. For instance, when she admits to us that she has terrible allergies, Hung cuts to her in her room, in a gross, gray hoodie, hunched over her phone, looking miserable and unpleasant. These brief flashes offer Lottie her most humane moments, when real-world reality comes off so overwhelmingly that her fabricated reality is punctured. This also happens at the ending, or I guess the cliffhanger, when we see another side of Lottie’s true personality.
None of this could have been accomplished with a loose perspective. Lottie is “Snotgirl” #1’s narrator, and everything we see is something that she has witnessed and presented to us. Even in the few instances when O’Malley and Hung cut away somewhere else, we’re still seeing what Lottie imagines is happening. She’s in control of the story she’s telling, but the part of her she thinks is in charge is losing its authority.
There’s all kinds of clues to Lottie’s world being not what it seems or whatever. This is especially evident through Mickey Quinn’s utilization of green. The palette in “Snotgirl” #1 is generally soft and cool. Hung doesn’t go big with the backgrounds, leaving Quinn enough room to imply character and emotion in all that negative space. Color is used so well over here, from the earthy tones introduces Caroline (who, by the way, is dressed in black and white, because she’s the level-headed person Lottie wants to befriend, but also this wicked creature) or the oranges and purples of the club to make it seem otherworldly or something.
Continued belowIt’s that use of green, though, that constantly reminds Lottie of her own shortcomings and insecurities. And it’s this poisonous, disgusting green, too. Quinn colors her hair with it, as if reminding us that her allergy problem is incessantly weighing over her And reminding us that Lottie is a poisonous person. I especially liked how Quinn would sneak flashes of this color in the gradients whenever Lottie was having an attack of some kind. Or in the scene at the doctor’s office, implying there’s something fishy going on there as well. (There probably isn’t an emoji for the type of fish it is, tho.)
“Snotgirl” #1 is an odd and unique title, especially coming out of Image Comics, who have been making some efforts to break away from the Image formula. Leslie Hung’s art might not be big and bombastic, but the visual and narrative storytelling here is on-point. There’s no doubt that this is a Bryan Lee O’Malley book, complete with all the humor, characters, and oddball presentation that entails, but bringing in Leslie Hung has also offered it a fresh perspective and presentation.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Some great storytelling and an interesting bunch of characters. It’s like “The Neon Demon” meets “Harriet the Spy” narrated by a modern day Fanny Hill.
