Sob Story

Sob Story
Published	December 17, 2017 (2017-12-17)
Page count	13
Major characters	Sue, Augustus
Minor characters	Paulo, Lucy, David
Locations	Oval, Cafeteria
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Sob Story is a Bittersweet Club International-exclusive comic in which Sue goes hunting for a subject for her school newspaper piece on under-privileged students. Paulo refuses to play along, but Augustus turns out to have rather more material than she bargained for.

Partial synopsis

Sue wants to write an article about under-privileged students and chooses Paulo as her first interview subject, bringing a recorder to his lunch break. Paulo does answer some of her questions. He gives his dad about half of every paycheck, and he walks to school because the bus doesn’t pass his house. He treats the walk as exercise, laughs off homework, collects his promised chocolate bar, and leaves. “Dude, I’m not gonna be your sob story. Go find someone else.”

Lucy, at her locker, is not surprised. She says Paulo does not like playing the victim, then tells Sue that people only pick up the paper to laugh at Craig’s anime comics. Sue considers the rest of her friends and rules each one out as too privileged for her article. “UGH I have so many privileged friends!!” Then Augustus happens to walk by.

She catches up with him on the grass out by the running track and nervously makes her pitch, promising to keep him anonymous. He’s wary of the whole idea, but he agrees to give her a try. And where Paulo dodged every question, Augustus answers them. His answers are going to take Sue a long way past anything on her question sheet...

Character dynamics

Paulo flexes off a question about his walk to school.

• Sue and Augustus: Sue approaches Augustus after hearing from Daisy that his life is difficult. He responds, “Glad she gets to talk about it..” Even so, he hears Sue out and agrees to the anonymous interview.
• Sue and Paulo: Sue needs answers for an article about under-privileged students, while Paulo gives her facts mixed with jokes. When she complains that his answers do not fit what she wants, he takes his promised chocolate bar and ends the interview. As Lucy puts it, he “doesn’t like to victimize himself.”

Trivia & observations

• The title comes straight from Paulo’s exit line.
• The authors announced the comic in the January 3, 2018 newspost “New Year, New Interview,” billing Sue as a “Do-gooder” and the comic as Augustus getting “his chance for social justice.”
• Craig, the paper’s cartoonist, makes his only speaking main-comic appearance in a flashback in Pillow Talk.
• Paulo splitting his paycheck with his dad is established in the main comic too. In Table for One he puts it as “Half’s in the car fund, the other half goes to dad.”

Related chapters

• Trapped: The main comic explores Augustus’s childhood and difficult circumstances. Sue approaches him in Sob Story after hearing a general account from Daisy.
• Escape Route: Published a few months after Sob Story, this chapter follows Lucy as she walks home with Augustus and learns more about his circumstances.