Joe Gamer

Sweet, unassuming slacker Scott Pilgrim recently had his heart broken.  The 23 year old Canadian has lived in a slump for nearly a year, but things are looking up!  His band doesn’t suck as bad anymore and he recently brought home a 17-year old Chinese-Canadian girlfriend, Knives Chau.  Things are easy and life is simple… that is until the vibrantly fashionable Ramona Flowers rollerblades her way into his dreams, literally.  Suddenly confronted with true love, Scott has a choice: grow up and date the woman of his dreams or continue to be the lackluster slacker he has always been.  However, dating Ramona has a caveat: Scott Pilgrim must fight and defeat Ramona’s Seven Evil Exes!

Combining a cute 20-somethings romance with insane video game references and off-the wall humor, the Scott Pilgrim series by Canadian cartoonist Brian Lee O’Malley is one of the biggest surprises this year.  A few months ago I had never heard of the quirky graphic novel.  I happened upon it while watching the movie Kick-Ass in the theater where I saw the trailer for the movie adaptation, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, named after the second book.  I was a little taken aback; the trailer began as a sweet, breezy romance about a normal guy and a girl with pink hair… until the guy flies in from the roof during Scott’s first concert and challenges him to a battle.  Yes.  He flies in.  Literally.  Not only that but sound effects are emoted like the old Adam West Batman series (thock! smack! pow!) as well as an announcer that bellows “KO” at the end of a fight!  It seemed a little too goofy and I put it in the back of my mind.  I steadily started to see more about it and after the second trailer that shows Chris Evans and Brandon Routhe as Evil Exes, I was sold.

I purchased the first two graphic novels and read through them both in an evening before proceeding to do whatever I could to get my grubby hands on the others.  I don’t read many graphic novels due to the cost and length of many series but I certainly made an exception for Scott Pilgrim.  I now own all six volumes and do not regret it, not one bit!

The series is pretty light-hearted with good moments of mature themes as Scott matures into his ill-conceived relationship with Ramona.  Video game references litter the stories, from a “pee” bar when he uses the restroom to the name of his bands (old band is named after an old Sega Genesis game “Kid Chameleon” and his new band is “Sex Bob-omb”).  Logic is thrown right out the door with Japanese roboticists and vegan psychics and all with a kind of tongue-in-cheek reality that seems to ask the reader “What?  Your world isn’t like this?”  It’s all really funny and spastic but the author does not let the witty banter and pop culture references get in the way of telling the story of young love.  Young, stupid, wonderful love.

I admit I liked Scott Pilgrim because I can relate to him.  He’s my age with my sensibilities.  I’m not as lazy or stupid as him, but I get the references and humor as if he were a good friend of mine.  I’ve read that people over the age of 25 would not like it because it feels like an “ADD induced MTV product” but since I neither have ADD or any love for MTV, I don’t really get it.  Instead I would say anyone who enjoys funny stories about the humor of love written by a nerd for nerds, please please give these books a try.  Besides, I know several guys over 25 that love the series anyway!

Comments?  More Scott Pilgrim reviews and previews to come!

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.