Scott Pilgrim vs. Me

I'm not a big fan of manga. I've tried to appreciate it for as long as I can remember, but apart from the occasional gems by classic masters like Yoshihiro Tatsumi or Goseki Kojima, rarely have I enjoyed, sought out, or even finished an entire volume of a Japanese comic. Add to my frustration the ever-increasing racks of mass-produced and recycled-art dreck stifling the graphic novel section of every major bookstore in the country, whose floorplans are rotating endlessly to accommodate the legions of middle-schoolers who camp out beginning at 3:30 to read the latest Fruits Basket or Naruto, and my tolerance for this bastard offshoot of the medium is at an end. Just as the trade paperback boom begins to make it easier to introduce newcomers to comics, I find it positively embarrassing to recommend to anyone a perusal of graphic novels at any of the chain stores. "You want me to look over here? Behind the pimple-faced kid with the Transformers backpack? Or around the corner here, where the girl in cat ears is sprawled out on the floor?"

So from the get-go Scott Pilgrim had two strikes against it. And despite several recommendations from friends and bloggers, I didn't pick up the book until learning that Universal Pictures had optioned the book for a movie, to be directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead; Hot Fuzz). I love me a good movie adaptation, especially when it promotes the "Read More Comics!" credo.

The book's title character is jobless, marginally-directionless, and hopelessly-infatuated with the new girl in town, one Ramona Flowers. So much so, in fact, that he breaks the heart of his seventeen year-old girlfriend Knives Chau (a perfect character send-off to the manga-reading kawaii crowd), and embarks on the troublesome quest of defeating Ramona's Seven Evil Ex-boyfriends.

The comic series, despite its Japanese style and manga-sized digest format, is actually the work of Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley. As soon as I got past the feeling that I was reading a Shonen Jump-ed up Pantone party, I was not only able to enjoy the hell out of the story, but truly appreciate the art style as well. Manga has always had, at its heart, a dynamism that, when not crossing the boundary into downright cartoon-y, is richly expressive and emotional. These Japanese influences are the qualities that make the work of Craig Thompson and Paul Pope, for example, so evocative and so fluid. O'Malley's work has a more polished, "anime"-style, certainly, than the dense brushstrokes of either Thompson or Pope, but it is no less effective. For telling a story swirling with rock-n-roll hijinks, video-game-inspired life lessons, and the hilarious ins-and-outs of miscommunicating with the opposite sex, Scott Pilgrim's execution is brilliant.

And, best yet, you won't find it crammed in the manga racks between Sanctuary and Scrapped Princess. Start with volume 1, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, published by Oni Press. The series is up to volume 4, with the next issue, Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe ("Target Audience: Fans of AWESOME") recently solicited for February, '09 release.