Comic Info
Comic Name: Scott Pilgrim
Publisher: Oni Press
Writer: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Artist: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Release Date: 2004
Ramona…you will be mine!!!
Scott Pilgrim is cool. He’s twenty-three, part of a band called the Sex Bob-omb, and dating a Chinese high school girl named Knives Chau after finally getting over a rough break-up. His life in Toronto seems as perfect as it can be when he begins dreaming about and encounters a girl named Ramona Flowers…now Scott’s life is about to be turned upside down. Ramona has a bit of a past and if Scott wants to date Ramona, he’ll have to deal with the League of Evil Exes who is still after Ramona.
Written and illustrated by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life starts out a six volume manga that tells the tale of Scott Pilgrim. The story was well received upon its release and has since been republished in a color version.
Rock out to the Sex- Bob-Omb!
Scott Pilgrim is a very niche publication in my opinion. If you hit it too old, you don’t get it (and Pilgrim seems a bit of a waste of space) and if you hit it too young, you don’t get a majority of the references in the comic. I fall a bit on the “old” side of Scott Pilgrim, but still get most of the references.
Scott Pilgrim is really set in the artist’s period of growing up. The comic is loaded with tons of references (particularly to video games) that were popular in the late ’80s or early ’90s. A person who never owned a NES might be wondering about half of what Pilgrim and his friends are talking about.
The comic is loaded with humor that can be very funny if you get these references. You can argue that Scott Pilgrim is kind of a waste of a main character in the lines of Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye. He is smart but he makes tons of mistakes and comes off as a bit of jerk in his treatment of Knives. I could see how some readers might not admire these slacker traits that the core audience might have outgrown.
Make room for Scott!!!
The art for the comic is quite good. O’Malley was film student drop out, and it probably could be argued that this was his most basic looking of the collections. He had done a few things before Scott Pilgrim, but he was inspired by readings on manga. He originally was pretty committed to the black-and-white to stick with manga traditions but the color versions of this comic do add to the story.
Scott Pilgrim was an interesting series and developed into a bit of a phenomenon. The comic was adapted into the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World which failed to impress at the box-office but has since gained cult popularity. Scott Pilgrim 1: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life is followed by Scott Pilgrim 2: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
Related Links:
Scott Pilgrim 2: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Scott Pilgrim 3: Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness
