You know, she puts up this sarcastic, cynical front, but deep down, Clugston-Major is clearly just a big 'ol romantic softie. I know this from reading Scooter Girl, which started off as a dark and cynical take on a sleazy guy and a somewhat snotty girl and has transformed in the last couple of issues into a more straightforward, if still slightly twisted, romantic comedy. Scooter Girl has been full of surprises, always zigging when you expect it to zag, and while this issue comes to what seems like a pretty foregone conclusion by the end of it all, looking back on the beginnings of the series it's pretty surprising to think that this is what it all came down to.
Actually, Scooter Girl's blend of dark comedy and more sappy romance doesn't seem all that unusual when you consider that Clugston-Major has shown her soft spot for romance in the pages of Blue Monday as well. But the conversion of Ashton from swinging bachelor prick to sensitive guy in love was something of a surprise, even as Clugston-Major made it perfectly believable. Ashton had a small bit of decency in him from the start which grew throughout the first few issues until we got something of a transformation last issue, and I love that Clugston-Major could pull off such a transformation convincingly. Ashton's the same guy we saw in the first issue, he's just been humbled, and as a result, his arrogance has been toned down to confidence, making him a much more likable character. I've seen this kind of thing in the past from friends whose significant others took a nasty edge off their otherwise pleasant personalities, and so I have no trouble seeing it from fictional characters.
Perhaps the greatest joy for Scooter Girl #6 for me, however, was in seeing that Margaret Sheldon has been transformed by this odd romance as well. Early on, I worried that Clugston-Major was going to portray Ashton as nothing more than a jerk who got what was coming to him, and Margaret's own arrogance and foibles were going to be glossed over. That isn't the case, as this is the first issue in which we really see Margaret through her own eyes and not just the angry/murderous/adoring gaze of Ashton. We see the character's vulnerability and humanity instead of just seeing her as a foil, and I was legitimately moved by her attempts to get away from a romance that she saw as doomed, as well as being impressed that she owned up to her part in the fiasco when she talked to Ashton.
Of course, all this romantic stuff doesn't mean that Clugston-Major has given up the comedy. Scooter Girl may have its roots in the mod scooter scene, but it also has a few of them planted right in the teen sex comedy genre, and Clugston-Major gets more than a few laughs this issue around two of the major characters getting roaring drunk and throwing up. I also loved Ashton giving in to petty revenge moments after he swore off it, showing that maturation doesn't mean he's become completely inhuman or dull.
Scooter Girl turns out to be a bitter pill with a candy center, exploring the range of male-female relationships from love to hate, and playing out a classic love story against a very unusual backdrop. Clugston-Major's unusual sensibilities, which include fashion, music and entertainment trends from the 1920s on up mixed together, make for an interesting mixture of classic and new, and while Scooter Girl was quite different from Blue Monday, I can definitely see it appealing to the same fans.
