Part of the fun of reviewing Leslie Hung and Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Snotgirl has been seeing how they’re unfurling their increasingly wild central mystery while keeping their focus on their cast and how they’re changing. Make no mistake, Snotgirl is a gonzo comic that’s only getting more so. Allergy-prone fashion influencer Charlotte “Lottie” Person’s fallen head over heels for Caroline, a mercurial model involved in shady doings and who might be immortal—or at least unaging. Caroline’s brother Virgil is wrapped up in Caroline’s goings-on while battling guilt, possible amnesia, and definite feelings for Lottie’s ex-boyfriend Sunny. Sunny’s got something for Virgil that he can’t put words to, but Virgil’s also partially responsible for the murder of his best friend. Lottie’s sister Fumiko “Rosie” Person, her mother, Kimiko, and her Aunt Aya have their share of baggage, which is getting mixed in with Caroline and Lottie’s first fight. Meanwhile, Lottie’s frenemy Coolgirl (real name Misty), taser in hand, seeks answers about Caroline’s strange, increasingly sinister deal.
Snotgirl is, by design, A LOT. It’s also an incisive character study with spectacular character work from Hung. Issue #18 cranks up the zonk for Sunny, Misty, and Virgil’s side of the story while dialing into the fraught history of the Person family for Lottie, Caroline, and company’s side.
Part of what makes Snotgirl‘s absurd side work so well is how thoroughly it’s a part of the comic’s language. Of course, Coolgirl’s taser would be color-coordinated with her outfit. Image.
Throughout Snotgirl‘s run, Lottie and Rosie have kept secrets from each other. They’re not as wild or dangerous as Caroline and Virgil’s secrets, but they’re part of a pattern for the sisters—and their pattern is the child of one running between their mother and aunt. Throughout issue #18, Hung and O’Malley expand on Lottie and Rosie’s dynamic, their relationship with their mother and aunt, and Kimiko and Aya’s relationship. Hung again demonstrates her mastery of body language and how characters move around each other. With the extended Person family coming into focus, Hung highlights their similarities and differences.
While issue #18 marks Aya’s first appearance in Snotgirl, O’Malley and Hung swiftly build her into a dimensional, compelling character—she and Kimiko could easily be the protagonists of their own series. Image.
Lottie and Rosie’s relationship is more overtly dramatic than their mother and their aunt’s, but O’Malley deftly establishes that the family’s foibles are generational—and with one secret now revealed (that Kimiko and Aya were part of a successful idol group when they were younger, and Aya holds Kimiko responsible for their dissolution), the Person family’s baggage looks set to become a new storytelling engine for Snotgirl—while Caroline and her brothers’ history remains the book’s core mystery, this issue offers the beginnings of answers thanks to Misty and Sunny’s semi-willing collaborative investigation.
While the Person clan’s fraught history doesn’t yet seem to involve anything as out there as Caroline’s possible immortality and definite shadiness, the distance between the two plots emphasizes one of Snotgirl‘s great strengths as a comic—its thoughtful character work keeps its absurd mystery tied to human stakes, while its go-for-broke larger than life mysteries continually force the cast out of their comfort zones and into situations that emphasize their dynamism. O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim was so much fun for similar reasons.
If you’ll pardon the shameless gushing, Leslie Hung draws people so damn well. Lottie and Rosie’s shared body language isn’t just a good sight gag, it reinforces their sisterhood and primes the reader to consider them, their Mom and their aunt in a familial context. Image.
Getting into Snotgirl has been a much-needed joy over the past few months. Hung and O’Malley’s weird noir comedy romance is a superb comic, one I’m glad to return to when a new issue drops.
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