I admit it. I love Scott Pilgrim. He’s cute, funny, and geeky – but he’s got his heart set on pink-haired, rollerblading Amazon delivery-girl Ramona Flowers and even her seven evil ex-boyfriends aren’t going to stop him getting his girl. So my chances are pretty slim, but at least I have an awesome comic to help the pain to fade.
Scott Pilgrim is the story of a 23-year-old guy trying to find a job and a girlfriend, and deal with all the challenges that involves – including realising your cute high school girlfriend might not be the best match but the new girl you’ve got your eye on is carrying a lot of baggage, and your ex-girlfriend might just be back in town and you’re maybe-just-not-quite over her yet.
That, and there’s video game references galore, a terrible rock band, battles with less terrible rock bands, ninjas, subspace, Canadian temperature changes and gay roommates to deal with along the way.
It’s not perfect – the dialogue’s a bit clunky to start out with and the style sometimes sways a bit too far towards the manga style instead of O’Malley’s own style, subspace is only vaguely explained and certain plot points – particularly towards the end – are arguably not quite what we’d have hoped for.
It’s a quirky, ‘indie’ sort of comic book with simple but simple but expressive style and characters are linked together in a way that gives them depth while keeping them interesting and relevant to the story.
Here’s an animated short showing one of the scenes in the style of the comic:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljXNUnrg4fc[/youtube]
The short was made to promote their newly released live action “Scott Pilgrim VS. the World Movie” movie, starring Michael Cera (who’s a bit boring sometimes) and a bunch of other dolled-up teenagers looking troubled but beautiful… but it’s true to the comic and I have no doubt it’s going to be awesome purely because of that. The movie covers all 6 volumes of the comic.
Here’s the trailer, but more importantly, the official site has previews for all of the comics.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NUBVcit5VM[/youtube]
Oh, and did I mention it’s directed by the man behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz? Edgar Wright is awesome, guys. AWESOME. And us Brits love him.
It’s just out in UK cinemas, and I’ll be headed to see it this weekend!
To top it all of, there’s an 8-bit style XBLA/PSN game based on the comic’s style.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAY4vNJd7A8[/youtube]
…And all my geeky boxes have been ticked.
Played the video game last night and it’s lots of fun if you like side-scrollers, especially if you’ve got someone in the house to play Co-Op with. (The story’s really vague if you haven’t read the comic, but that doesn’t affect gameplay.) I’m looking forward to unlocking the zombie survival mode!
Seriously, though – if you’re into comics, support the creator and give them a read, and/or go see the movie as it’s struggling in the US box office, and it’s time for the Brits to show it some love.