As a Scott Pilgrim fanatic, I support anything Bryan Lee O'Malley creates. Snotgirl is his latest creation, a collaboration with artist Leslie Hung, in an ongoing comic series. I picked up issue #1 (with O’Malley’s variant cover) at SDCC ‘16 not knowing what to expect from a comic about allergies and fashion, but I was pleasantly surprised! By the end of the first issue I was completely sold. The series is full of shocking moments, and waiting month to month for the next issue is absolute torture! This post reviews Snotgirl Vol. 1: Green Hair, Don’t Care, which was recently released by Image Comics and collects issues #1-5.
Lottie Person is the star of Snotgirl, a green haired and glamorous 25 year old fashion blogger from the glamorous and glitzy city of Los Angeles. She runs a successful fashion blog and business, and even has her very own intern. She’s living the fashion blogger dream! But her most hidden and shameful secret is that she suffers from uncontrollable allergies that completely rule her life. It’s a secret her photographer boyfriend and fashion blogger besties “Normgirl” and “Cutegirl” don't even know. Lottie hides her secret behind her perfectly crafted “effortlessly chic” online persona (because the Snotgirl look is completely off brand). But despite her best efforts to present the illusion of her ideal self, her insecurities and self doubt are evident in her cries of, “You’re the worst!! Why even bother updating?!…No one cares!”, a struggle not unfamiliar to anyone with an active social media presence.
Lottie meets the new fashion blogger in town, whom she decidedly nicknames “Coolgirl”. She is immediately in awe of just how cool and different Coolgirl is, someone whose life isn’t ruled by her imperfections. While Lottie is always anxious that someone will discover her secret, Coolgirl is completely cool and carefree. Lottie attempts to reinvent herself in an effort to be more cool, and starts taking a new allergy medication (a drug trial with unknown side effects), and just as she and Coolgirl start to become best friends, her world starts to spiral... into an unexpectedly mysterious story with surprisingly dark undertones. Volume 1 of Snotgirl establishes Lottie’s world and her struggles with the competitive world of fashion blogging and her relationships within that world. Several characters and mysteries are introduced that build intrigue and will no doubt continue be explored in ongoing issues. The end of volume 1 definitely left me with numerous questions that I’ve been dying to know the answers to!
The fashion in the series is also something to be appreciated. O’Malley describes Hung’s art style as “stylish and romantic, with an undercurrent of sadness”, which is appropriate for a series based in fashion. Lottie, Coolgirl, Cutegirl, and Normgirl all have their own respective styles influenced by their personalities. Every outfit is carefully curated to suit each character and stylishly detailed, so much so that they’re basically fashion illustrations. While Coolgirl’s sense of fashion is closer to my own personal style, Cutegirl’s party outfit from issue #2 is a personal favorite! With that said, although Snotgirl may seem unappealing or even material on the surface; a chic and trendy story about a fashion blogger with allergies and boy problems, the series proves itself to have a lot of depth in its exploration of identity in social media. Lottie takes a lot of care in crafting her online persona, but how much of that is her real self and how much of it is edited and filtered? It’s a fascinating and thought provoking phenomenon and I can't wait to learn more about Lottie and her world when Snotgirl returns this summer.
Rating: 4/5
★★★★
Bryan Lee O'Malley also created this snotify playist on Spotify which I listened to in its entirety while writing this review. Listen and enjoy!