GBBP 183: Bryan Lee O'Malley & Leslie Hung

Today, we’re talking about snot. Snotgirl, to be specific.

If this one slipped by you, let me help you out. Snotgirl is a current ongoing book from Image Comics by Bryan Lee O’Malley and Leslie Hung. The story features the adventures of an LA-based fashion blogger whose glamorous life unravels due to severe allergies (and, to be fair, a possible murder for which she may be responsible). The second trade, California Screaming (which collects issues 6-10), is out now so you can get all caught up.

O’Malley might be best known as the creator, writer, and artist of the Scott Pilgrim series (Oni Press) and Seconds (Ballantine Books), but Snotgirl is the first book on which he’s not pulling double duty. He’s writing, and Hung is doing the (absolutely incredible) illustrations. Together, they’re telling a story that is underrepresented in pop culture – the story of a native Angeleno. According to Hung: “The classic LA story is someone moving to Hollywood to make it big. We want to tell a different story, about what it’s like to start here, born and raised in the heart of image-obsessed California.”

The book is groundbreaking in a few other respects. Not least of which is Snotgirl marks Hung’s first time working on a graphic novel at all. In fact, the book grew out of O’Malley’s desire to get her into the industry and working on a book.

On this episode, we talk Snotgirl (obviously), figuring out how to collaborate and finding a new approach to their own creativity, fashion bloggers, online personas, how many of their own neuroses factor into the story, diversity, and mixed cultural heritages.

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