Review by Frank Plowright
Big Ugly explores the complicated family dynamics that ensue when Mel offers her younger brother a room in her place shortly after her relationship breaks up. She’s concerned about her health, but doctors won’t listen, while Matt just wants an easy life after working for their father, and begins a new relationship with a woman who enthusiastically embraces ideas of human design profiles.
Ellice Weaver is primarily an illustrator, which shows in strong designs and people embedded in fully detailed backgrounds, yet there’s also a storytelling confidence from someone to whom graphic novels are secondary trade. Big Ugly is fundamentally a character study. The cast are revealed through cleverly constructed conversations during which not everything is clarified at once, the meaning of some matters discussed early only later coming into focus. Not everything is laid out either in a skilfully constructed tale, Weaver crediting readers with enough intelligence to read between the lines and piece things together.
The central relationships are just as credible. There are no resentments like family resentments where propriety and boundaries are non-existent, and the past is never entirely laid to rest. Mel and Matt are vicious in going at each other, each using the other as a repository for their own frustrations. Weaver also uses an invisible character well, the person never seen, but whose influence is large.
Bold colour choices enliven the art, which is largely produced without outlines, the separation of differently coloured areas defining figures and their space. The shades vary from page to page, but always thoughtfully considered, and maintaining definition.
While the engaging writing and interesting art take Big Ugly a great distance, it isn’t maintained all the way through. While it could be viewed as a passing glimpse into two lives, there’s a greater feeling that Weaver couldn’t generate an ending, and the final pages feature a clumsy and unnecessary flashback sequence before Big Ugly judders to a halt. While that doesn’t undermine the good work, it’s a shame for a project that’s so good for so long.
