Snotgirl Volume 1: Green Hair Don't Care

by Bryan Lee O'Malley

[Quirky Cat]

3 1/2 Stars.

It’s easy to look at a graphic novel like Snotgirl and make some very basic assumptions about it. I know I did. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found within. Snotgirl was nothing like what I expected, and I couldn’t be happier about that.
Snotgirl comes from the minds of Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim, Seconds, Lost at Sea) and Leslie Hung (new to comics, but worth keeping an eye on). The artists are Mare Odomo (Ahoy Booty!, Late Bloomer) and Mickey Quinn (Jonsey, Best Friends Forever).
I’ll be honest with you, when I started reading Snotgirl I had actually completed spaced on the fact that it was written by the same guy that created Scott Pilgrim. If I had known/remembered that I would probably have read this series a lot sooner. Oh well.



So, what can I say about Snotgirl? Well for starters I should probably mention that the main character, aka Snotgirl, is Lottie Person. Yes, that really is her name. She’s a fashion blogger, which in this case basically means she is constantly photographing herself, catering to her social media accounts, and trying to keep the world unaware of her severe allergies. Oh, and she’s desperately trying to connect with her so called friends.
It’s easy to blow this whole series off as a shallow glamour series, but I think it’s more than that. I believe that this is a satire on the shallow world that Lottie has found herself in. After all, she’s so attention starved and desperate for a real friend that she ran off with the first new girl that made herself available.
There are some pretty odd scenes that happen along the way. They sort of remind me of that movie, Jawbreaker, in that it’s all about girls being catty and nobody seems to know what really happened (except for the core clique, that is). The similarities end there though, which is fine by me.
I hate to say it, but I actually sort of like Lottie as a character. She reminds me of one of those girls that, when you can get them to sit down, drop the act, and actually be themselves end up being pretty cool. I love that she makes up all these nicknames for everyone – but that she doesn’t share that with anybody else. It’s probably for the best, since the nicknames tend to be blunt and therefore could be hurtful. I know she’s attributing her nickname to her new friend, but honestly I think she’s the creator of said nickname (feel free to take those implications however you would like).
I have to admit that I don’t really know where this series is going. I think I’m okay with that, but really that will truly depend on where the next volume goes, I think. This one does end on a cliffhanger, which I’m not a huge fan of. Hopefully the next volume won’t do the same.


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks