This You Might Like It is a tale of two Scotts for me. You see, the man responsible for introducing me to Scott Pilgrim is Scott McCloud, perhaps the best known critical commentator on comics as an art form. McCloud’s best known for his series of books that approach comics from a scholarly yet accessible angle–Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics and Making Comics. He also did a spectacular series called Zot! which I’m considering for a future YMLI. Anyway, McCloud was touring the states a few years ago to promote his latest work, and during his lecture he mentioned a number of comics he felt were noteworthy in helping to shape the comic medium. One that got the nod was Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim–which if you haven’t heard of yet you certainly will when the feature film comes out late this year or early next (Michael Cera from Arrested Development, Juno and Superbad plays the titular Scott Pilgrim). But why wait on a film adaptation when you could pick up a couple of paperbacks and discover for yourselves the exciting, bizarre action-romance-comedy, with a liberal splash of 1990s gaming nostalgia?
Is this awesome Y/N?
The Quick and Dirty
- Scott Pilgrim is the brainchild of Canadian author Bryan Lee O’Malley.
- Black-and-white comic in a loose anime style, which jives with the often wacky and frenetic plot.
- Basic premise is Scott must fight seven evil ex-boyfriends to get Ramona, the girl of his dreams.
- If you’ve ever asked “what would it be like if life were more like a video game?” this is it.
- Endearing with a few flaws, bends genres like whoa, five of six planned books currently on shelves.
If you read this blog you’ll probably identify a little bit with Scott, the eponymous star of O’Malley’s series. He’s a through-and-through North American nerd, relentlessly optimistic and still a would-be rock star at age 23 (his band is named Sex Bob-Omb). I strongly doubt anyone will completely identify with Scott–he’s oftentimes boneheaded or moronic, his memory is so selective he seems amnesic at times, and I certainly don’t envy his love life, which is a long and complicated subject. Scott’s romantic follies drive the plot of the series; in book one he starts having strange dreams about a girl he’s never met, and then, surprise surprise, he actually meets her. Her name, it turns out, is Ramona Flowers, recently moved to Toronto from New York city, and she works as a delivery girl for Amazon.ca. Ramona’s delivery routes pass through subspace, which explains why she keeps passing through Scott’s unconscious mind, and also why she’s so very efficient at her job. This is entire concept is introduced with almost no explanation to the reader, the bow shock of the many zany things to come.
Scott falls for Ramona like Bowser when Mario cuts the bridge, but there are two problems. The first is that Scott’s been dating seventeen-year-old Knives Chau, and has to dump her. Knives is floored by this and remains head-over-heels in love with Scott for…well, for all five books, so far. But more pressing is that to really earn Ramona’s affection, Scott has to fight and defeat her seven evil exes. In the process he’ll learn about friendship, love, etc. But as all video gamers know (and Shadow of the Colossus proves) the boss fights are always the best part.
It’s hard to tell if Scott is living in a video game, or if his universe just behaves like one. Toronto’s very real–landmarks like Honest Ed’s appear in the series accurately rendered in all their glory. But at the same time it’s both baffling and completely in character when defeated evil exes dissolve into change–literally, dollars and cents (I suppose “gil” is under copyright, or maybe it just can’t be used for bus fare). Eventually, somehow you suspend your disbelief and learn to enjoy the wackiness for what it is, and cheer on as Scott fights for peace, love and rock n’ roll. His opponents, without giving too much away, are foes you love to hate. Expect to see Scott fight creeps like Matthew, evil ex number 1, who summons demon hipster chicks to do his bidding, and ex number 3 Todd, who earned his mystic powers with the disciplined refinement of mind, body and soul…through veganism. O’Malley’s art and writing style are a good marriage for these kinds of shenanigans–there are frequently little quirks and digressions throughout the series, such as when an entire page is devoted to a recipe for vegan shepherd’s pie, or when Knives has a little box to reintroduce her each time she appears in one single issue as “Knives Chau – 17 years old.”
There are hurdles to my love of Scott Pilgrim, not the least of which is that I’m on tenterhooks for the ending but have no idea when it will be released. Scott’s a lot of fun, for sure, but he can be a bit tiring at times too–sometimes you just want to smack him around and tell him to get his life in order and grow up. But that’s part of the charm, and at least by books 4 and 5 he’s getting there (sort of). Ramona’s also a big issue for me, and for some of my friends who are also fans of the series. She’s supposed to be some kind of dream girl, or at least desirable enough that Scott would be willing to fight for her love. But she’s perhaps the most flawed character in the series–despite liberal hinting that she has some sordid, dark past involving Gideon (evil ex number 7) we still don’t know what it is. She can also be just as short-sighted or frustrating as Scott, and at the end of volume 5 I was practically pulling out my hair at some recent developments.
But I should emphasize that the series as a whole still remains a lot of fun to read, and my hope is that the conclusion of the series will be the epic showdown fans have been hoping for, with the happily ever after I think Scott still deserves. And hey, if not, maybe Sex Bob-Omb will at least play another sweet gig. As for the film adaptation…well, I’m not holding my breath (Michael Cera as Scott simply doesn’t feel right to me) but ideally it’ll be true to what O’Malley envisioned–if the comic reads like a video game, the movie will watch like one, a romantic comedy with a healthy portion of 8-bit nostalgia and rock-and-roll showdowns.
Next week for YMLI, I plan to expand my horizons (and yours too!) with my most ambitious coverage of a series yet–the wildly popular Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett! One of the greatest living fantasy authors, Pratchett is a master satirist and comedian, and his works are both witty and funny. Of course, I’d be silly to try and tackle all 36 (and counting) novels in the Discworld universe, mostly because I’m still working my way through them myself. But I plan to give a rundown of some of my favorites, as well as what I feel are some of the most important novels in the series. So, You Might Like It, the best of Discworld!
Tags: bryan lee o'malley, comic, scott mccloud, scott pilgrim, YMLI, You Might Like It
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