Scooter Girl
Chynna Clugston-Major
Oni Press
168 pages

Scooter Girl follows the exploits of Ashton Archer, a successful Lothario-about-town whose luck suddenly runs out when he meets Margaret Sheldon ā€“ the Scooter Girl of the title ā€“ who rejects his advances and essentially steals his mojo, driving Ashton to ever more desperate measures to regain control of his life.

Another vehicle for Chynna Clugston-Majorā€™s talents after Blue Monday first brought her critical and popular acclaim, Scooter Girl is a self-contained story, in contrast to Blue Mondayā€™s ongoing episodic hi-jinks, but shares several themes with her breakthrough title, notably a fixation with mod culture, scooters (duh!) and near-constant musical references. However, itā€™s aimed at a slightly older audience than Blue Mondayā€™s high-school comedy (and definitely moreso than Queen Bee, Chynnaā€™s series for Scholasticā€™s kids imprint Graphix).

Like Queen Bee, Scooter Girl is over-written, with a tendency for narrator Ashton to tell rather than show, but the blackly funny situations, sassy dialogue and luscious manga-influenced art still make it a winner.

Owen Heitmann