Like many of Harvey's comic headliners, Lotta was notable for a quirky defining characteristic - in this case, an insatiable appetite giving rise to superhuman strength.

[1] Lotta stories were penned by Warren Kremer and Howard Post, and for the majority of the years that she appeared in comics, she was drawn by Sid Couchey and Dom Sileo.

[citation needed] Far from being the "unpopular fat kid" stereotype represented in other popular media (such as her contemporary Tubby in Little Lulu) Lotta was depicted as friendly, kind-hearted and always ready to use her tremendous strength for what she deemed as good.

In a sense, Lotta's storylines fulfill two very common childhood fantasies: the satisfaction of visceral desires (eating everything in sight) and freedom through physical power.

Lotta lives in the fictional town of Bonnie Dell, a "timeless" picket-fence suburb existing in the same world as several other Harvey characters (although in many stories it is simply called Harveyville).