I know I’m coming really late to the party on this, but I finally got around to reading Scott Pilgrim Vol. 1 (which Adam got me for Christmas – thanks Adam!) and I pretty much loved it. It was so fun and light and enjoyable. Not that the other comics I read on a daily basis aren’t fun and light and enjoyable (although sometimes they are the exact opposite of that), but there was a real ease to the Pilgrim stuff that I realized I totally miss out on in most of the stuff I read these days.
There was also a moment…and it’s a moment that happens for me…or has happened for me in I think every comic I’ve ever ended up truly loving…where the writer/artist totally hooks me and allows me to commit wholeheartedly to the book. A moment where I say to myself, “Okay, I’m in…you’ve got me.”
And Scott Pilgrim had that moment. It’s a really small thing, but it was just this one perfect panel that allowed me to open my heart to the book and characters and just love it. Let me show you. First you need to have a reference image for what the panel is talking about. This is Ramona Flowers.
She is a girl that has been showing up in Scott Pilgrim’s dreams of late, and he’s pretty smitten, though he doesn’t know who she is.
And this. This is Scott Pilgrim trying to figure out who she is by asking his friend Wallace.
OMG. I AM DYING FROM TEH CUTE! Ahem. No, seriously, there’s something about the realness and adorableness about that panel that just hooks me. Because first of all, though the dialogue is simple, it’s actually quite accurate I think to how a conversation like that goes…and it just feels SO real…like a conversation you have totally had before with your friend. It also immediately tells me so much about Scott Pilgrim in that one panel. That he’s a highly visual person because he uses his hands to describe this girl’s hair instead of explaining it. That he’s aware what a long shot it is with his “Okay, this might sound vague” but he’s still all optimistic with those giant excited hopeful eyes. I just love it. It’s a completely tiny thing in the scope of it all, but it’s what hooked me. It’s what will have me coming back for more.
All that said, I must admit that I was thrown by the whole superhero-y fighting stuff at the end. I wasn’t a big fan of it and preferred it as a slice of life book about Scott and his band and friends that it was for the first three quarters plus of the book. But the series is obviously much beloved and O’Malley certainly knows what he’s doing, so I’ll keep tuning in…mostly because of that one panel of hilarious perfection.
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Wonderful!
I find that the way O’Malley writes is how people think and how people talk. There’s a lot of natural conversation that flows wonderfully and thats really what I love most about it. It’s an easy read and you find yourself connecting to these characters because of moments like you posted above.
It’s nuts because looking at his work then and looking at his work now is a completely different experience. Throughout the years he’s been working on them his ‘style’ is pretty different from that of the first book. I guess I can say it’s cleaner? I’m not sure but as you progress in the series you’ll see what I mean.
As for the battle scenes…well, I won’t spoil anything for you. I hope that you’ll get a chance to read the next few books soon! The last book is coming out this year!
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Tara: Yeah, Paul probably hates me for calling Scott Pilgrim cute, but I can’t help it, he is totally, in the best possible sense CUTE.
It’s obvious just from this first volume that O’Malley has a great ear for dialogue, I felt it all seemed very realistic and natural…and funny. So funny.
One of my favorite things about being late on reading something comic related is getting to read it in huge chunks and watching the evolution of the art. I’ve already ordered Volumes 2, 3, and 4, so I’ll definitely be getting more into this in the days to come. Have you read Lost At Sea – another O’Malley title? Looked pretty interesting.
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don’t forget that Scott Pilgrim 5 came out earlier this year, so order that one too! 😉 the whole series is great but it really blew me away with volume 4.
Lost At Sea is also really good but pretty different, much more melancholy.
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