Scott Pilgrim

Last night I finally got around to re-reading the Scott Pilgrim books, something I've been wanting to do with the movie just around the corner. Actually for some crazy reason, I'd only read up through half of volume four previously and as I loved the Scott Pilgrim books the first time I read them, I really don't know how I managed to put continuing to read the Scott Pilgrim books on the back burner.


Scott Pilgrim is a six volume manga-sized series written and drawn by Bryan Lee O'Malley, published by Oni Press. Besides the size of the Scott Pilgrim books, the other similarities that Scott Pilgrim has with manga is that it is very kinetic, the characters are all young with big eyes, and the Scott Pilgrim "universe" has its own rules regarding the things the characters can do that wouldn't work in other works of fiction. For example, while Scott Pilgrim is primarily about Scott Pilgrim trying to woo Ramona, his new heart's desire, by defeating her seven ex-boyfriends, the Scott Pilgrim series is really just about young hipsters (late teens and early 20's in age) and their romantic entanglements.
When Scott Pilgrim goes into battle with Ramona's ex-boyfriends, the humor gets cranked up quite a few notches as a number of the characters (including Scott) have crazy fighting skills and powers that they are able to access like the characters from video games have. While the fight scenes are crazy funny, I prefer the parts of Scott Pilgrim that are just about the characters hanging out, going to see bands or band practice, and finding out which characters will connect with each and whether Scott will ultimately win Romona's heart.

My favorite character is one of Ramona's ex-boyfriends, Todd, who claims to be a vegan, which gives him psychic powers from, as he describes it: "You know how you only use ten percent of your brain? Well, it's because the other 90% is filled with curds and whey." Well I don't have any psychic powers I know of from being a vegan for twenty years, but I never graduated from the top of my class at a vegan academy like Todd (grin), but then again I don't try to fool others by eating foods that aren't vegan and claiming they are (I've only lapsed when I used to eat a piece of cake at weddings I went to or if I get a dish at a restaurant that has dairy ingredients that I wasn't aware of after asking for no dairy) - so I'm at least better then Todd in that respect (grin)!

For those of you who haven't seen a trailer yet for the Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World movie that comes out August 13th, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NUBVcit5VM I think it looks great, sounds great, and is well cast and hope it finds the audience there is for what O'Malley is doing with Scott Pilgrim. Scott Pilgrim, the comic, already sells very well, but as more people see the trailer and the movie, there's going to be even more people wondering how the charms of this series eluded them for so long.

Alternate Reality Comics will have Scott Pilgrim volume 6 (subtitled Finest Hour) available on July 20th for a special Tuesday release date, so let me know if you want me to reserve one for you so that you can be the first on your block to read the conclusion!