Allergies and Anxiety in All Caps For Snotgirl

by Vince Brusio

In the fast-paced world of social media where millions of opinions are expressed without care for others’ feelings, one woman is caught up in this electronic tornado because of her day job. And night job. And her life which has now become her job. She is the ultimate keyboard commando, and her name is Snotgirl. She has debilitating allergies, and this is readily apparent just by looking at the cover of the first issue. Different, to say the least. In this PREVIEWSworld Exclusive interview, creators Bryan Lee O’Malley and Leslie Hung educate us about the eclectic Snotgirl #1 (MAY160544), which kicks off as an ongoing series from Image Comics this July at a comic shop near you.

Snotgirl #1 (MAY160544) is in comic shops July 20.

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PREVIEWSworld: Have you two known each other from previous projects? What were the conversations like that resulted in the pitch to Image Comics for Snotgirl #1 (MAY160544)?

Bryan Lee O’Malley: Well, we had known each other for a few years, and I always loved Leslie’s drawings, but I also loved that she was drawing constantly, every day. That’s a good combo if you want to do an ongoing comic. One day I said “Hey Leslie, you should be doing an Image book,” and somehow I got roped in, and that evolved into us working together on Snotgirl.

Leslie Hung: We were friends before we became collaborators, so we had a basis of trust to help each other through on something neither of us had done before.

PREVIEWSworld: Can you profile the book’s main character, Lottie Person? Does she have amiable qualities? Is she one to extend herself, or is she more self-centered? What do you like or dislike about her the most?

Leslie Hung: Lottie is insecure and neurotic, but ultimately good-hearted.  Her character has a complex duality that I was eager to explore from the beginning.  I feel like that moral complexity is something people will relate to, even though she’s not a conventional hero or anything.

Bryan Lee O’Malley: Lottie is beautiful and whip-smart. She’s also shallow and self-centered. The question for me is, how does an unconventional person with debilitating allergies and few redeeming qualities live their life? This generation struggles to find normal jobs and instead create employment out of whole cloth, in categories that didn’t exist a few years ago. What kind of toll does that take on interpersonal relationships? How does one stay sane? Lottie is an exploration of all these questions, plus she has green hair.

PREVIEWSworld: Where would Lottie be without her cell phone? Is she totally addicted to this electronic device? And what does that say about her as a person? Is it a reflection on the 20-somethings today?

Bryan Lee O’Malley: Lottie is a fashion blogger, so of course she’s on her smartphone 24/7. Her career wouldn’t even exist without the Internet. Honestly, the word “blogger” is kind of antiquated at this point -- which just makes it funny to us.

All our relationships have been impacted by smartphones and social media, and life is more fast-paced than ever. That’s one reason we envisioned Snotgirl as a monthly ongoing series. Fashion moves fast, the world moves fast, and every month we’re going to try to keep up.

Leslie Hung: Sure, she’s addicted to using her phone and sharing her life, but she has fans who are obsessed with watching her every move, so it’s a two-way street.  Social media has totally changed the way we think. We’re exposed to so many ideas and opinions all the time.  Lottie’s situation is interesting because she carefully curates what she shows her audience, so their opinions on her are going to be based on a limited understanding of who and what she is.

PREVIEWSworld: Give us a brief synopsis of how you both worked on this title. How would you describe what it’s like to work on Snotgirl?

Leslie Hung: I’ve mostly worked on doing very short comics, anthologies, and short stories that I wrote and drew.  It was a whole new experience when I started working with Bryan, but we were on the same wavelength throughout the whole process. 

Bryan Lee O’Malley: I’ve never done an ongoing monthly comic before, and I’ve never been just the writer before, so it’s a whole new set of challenges. The schedule and structure of putting out a periodical publication is quite different from how I usually work. 

For Snotgirl, we constantly go back and forth with ideas and jokes and character beats. It’s been a nonstop stream of thoughts for almost two years. We call it our hive mind — we’re in sync on a lot of things, but the synthesis of our different viewpoints is where the magic happens. Then I hammer it out into plot beats and dialogue, while Leslie makes everything beautiful, or nasty, as required.