Famed graphic novel creator Bryan Lee O’Malley starts his first ongoing comic, this time collaborating with artist Leslie Hung. Does this collaboration work? Read on to find out, and beware of mild spoilers.
Written by Bryan Lee O’Malley
Illustrated by Leslie HungFrom bestselling BRYAN LEE O’MALLEY (Scott Pilgrim) and superstar newcomer LESLIE HUNG! Lottie Person is a glamorous fashion blogger living her best life—at least that’s what she wants you to think. The truth is, her friends are terrible people, her boyfriend traded her up for someone younger, her allergies are out of control, and she may or may not have killed somebody! SNOTGIRL VOL. 1 is the perfect introduction to one of 2016’s most buzzed-about titles! Collects SNOTGIRL #1-5.
Commentary on social media has come into vogue over the last few years, yet even with the saturation of this material, the commentaries tend to be as shallow as the culture they attempt to condemn. “Snotgirl” largely avoids this sort of shallow condemnation by fully embracing the culture and telling the story from within it. O’Malley fully understands where social media stars are coming from and does his best to portray that, and simply by doing that accurately, he ends up with a world of jokes and important points to make.
I appreciated the way O’Malley and Hung built their world. New characters here are thrown at you constantly, yet as soon as we meet them, we know exactly who they are. Most of that has to do with the way everybody is represented based on their image first, and any depth that may exist shows itself later. There’s Cutegirl, a petite girl with a small, rounded face and large eyes who overuses internet slang and wears dresses adorned with fabric pieces of fruit. There’s Normgirl, who portrays herself as the ideal of normal and transitions into “full wedding blogger” upon engagement. Every character has a clear identity that stands out among the others, both visually and in terms of personality.
As we find out more about the characters, we learn just how fickle and misleading these identities are. For Lottie, this is established early on as she goes to extreme lengths to hide her allergies, with darker scenes of her curled up on her bed and dripping mucus placed next to bright scenes of her constructed perfection. As mentioned with Normgirl, her entire image immediately changes to something else when she gets engaged. It becomes clear that Cutegirl, too, is clearly not all cute. In fact, she may be the most sociopathic character in the book, even though we only get glimpses at it through small dialogue exchanges.
Hung’s choice of layouts deserves a note, too. There’s a heavy manga influence here: we often only have a few panels per page, most of which are close-ups of characters from different angles. These choices give the story an extremely melodramatic feel which humorously contrasts against the trivial problems the characters have. It also occasionally introduces a dream-like quality, like the meet-cute Lottie has with Coolgirl, a technique which soon becomes relevant as Lottie becomes unhinged by worries that she may have committed a murder. The one major downside to Hung’s art is her backgrounds: most are crudely drawn, if they exist at all. This isn’t as much of a problem as it could be because of the frequent close-ups, but it still stands out at points.
Even with all its spot-on social commentary and interestingly stylized art, though, the book has some major flaws. The story is very haphazard. Random shock moments pop up in each chapter. The series often feels like a string of events placed together for no grander purpose than to display this culture. Sometimes I get the feeling that the creators were still figuring out their story as they made these issues; other times, though, I feel like each moment will have a purpose in some bigger picture we can’t see yet. It’s a case where we’ll just have to see how things pan out.
I originally read these issues month by month, and it was a completely different experience reading them all together. There was a feeling of negativity overload, mainly because Lottie, the lead, is such an unlikable character. Seriously, the girl invites you to hate her. Though we do see her crippling misguided obsession and anxieties, the negative aspects of her character — selfishness, pettiness — are so overwhelming that it’s difficult to sympathize with her. I was completely put off when she tossed someone she hates into a pool, especially since the victim is far more sympathetic than Lottie. As the series goes on, we do get hints that some things may not be what they seem to us, and that Lottie’s medication could be messing with her mind. But even if we do end up sympathizing based on future plot developments, I don’t know how much more outright negativity I can stand. The “laugh at her shallowness” gag can only take you so far.
Continued belowI think the perfect encapsulation of this series comes during a scene where the three main characters are sitting around a table at a curry restaurant for a “Haters’ Brunch,” and Cutegirl tells her friends that her pet teacup pig has died. As soon as she says this, Lottie thinks, “Wow, death is all around me.” Cutegirl then reveals that she may have poured boiling water in her pig’s teacup, which Lottie considers strange for a second before moving back to her own problems. It’s shocking and strange and darkly humorous all at once, showing the self-obsession and disturbing personality below each character’s carefully constructed image. Yet, it can also be completely off-putting depending on the reader.
Overall, I did enjoy a lot of what O’Malley and Hung did here. But with a meandering plot and unlikable characters (no matter how intentional), I’m not sure how much more I want to read. I’ll still be here for the next batch of issues, so here’s hoping we get less of those negatives and more of the positives!
Final Verdict: 7.5 – An accurate and unique portrayal of social media culture, but occasionally off-putting and in need of a stronger plot.
