Scott vs. The World
Continuing on from where I left off a few weeks ago, I just finished re-reading the first two volumes of the Scott Pilgrim series tonight. The second read-through really seems to bring the story together, or at least it did for me. Knowing the characters and the plot allowed me to enjoy the drawings and such more this time around. It also helps distinguish between the dream sequences and reality or the parts where the story kinda flips back and forth between two places without any warning (e.g., pages 6-7 will be in one place, then 8-9 will be elsewhere, but 10-11 will be back to the first scene, etc.); again, could just be that I’m not used to the conventions of a graphic novel yet.
There isn’t a lot of deliberate character development, like you’d find at the start of a movie, somehow I seem to have a much better connection to the main characters after this second read. I’m not a fast reader, but the relatively short length of the books makes it easy (and enjoyable) to breeze through them in a night, and like I’ve already said here, there is a good amount of re-read value to be had: video game references to pick-up, visual gags in the artwork, etc. I don’t know what the author’s grand plan was for the slow release schedule (read: one volume every ~12 months) — I can only assume that’s how long it takes to draw a story like this — but both the art and overall quality of the story has improved in the second volume.
Without giving too much away, Scott has had his ups and downs, good and bad luck, his funny and embarrassing moments and is constantly surrounded by a colourful cast of characters, both friends and foes. The way that the story mixes real-life situation with video game -esque stylings (e.g., the first evil ex- leaving behind coins a’la Super Mario or the second evil ex- dropping a mithril skateboard which Scott can’t use because he doesn’t have the skateboarding proficiency), not to mention the awesome fight scenes, should make for a very interesting movie adaptation. While I have all the confidence in the world that Edgar Wright will make this a kick ass flick, he’ll be walking that fine line between ‘too much’ and ‘too little’ the whole time. Of course, if you haven’t checked out Edgar’s site yet, the almost daily glimpses at the filming process are the best teases you’ll see from a movie this year… just enough that you can identify the characters and the scenes, but not enough to spoil anything… it’s just perfect. Thanks Edgar!
[* Unqualified rant begins here *] If I can provide any advice to Edgar and his crew (or anyone doing a comic/graphic novel to film adaptation): be sure to translate the iconic comic panels to the screen as faithfully as possible, but between those iconic panels, just do what feels right for the film! For instance, I love the shot of everyone sitting on the bed from volume one… it’s perfect! Now just use this scene like an old school key frame and find the best way to carry the film along to the next iconic panel which you’ll shoot with crazy accuracy to detail. Whenever possible, try to match up the source imagery along the way, but don’t feel obliged to mirror every frame in the book/graphic novel. [* Rant over, thankfully *]
As for the actual stories, volume two builds on volume one and that makes it just that much better. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading both books so far and will be heading off to pick-up volume three as soon as I’m done writing this here tonight. The graphic novel medium obviously isn’t a fit for every story — but that hasn’t stopped someone from publishing the popular works of one W. Shakespeare in a psudo- updated graphic novel format (shudder) — but it’s perfect for O’Malley’s story about a kinda geeky boy who is hanging out ‘between jobs’ and trying to find himself with the help of his close friends. The characters you meet in the story are just awesome and really have started to take on a life of their own… and you’ll never find a better list of character names: Ramona Flowers, Knives Chau, Young Neil, Stephen Stills, Kim Pine and of course Scott Pilgrim.
While you’ll have to wait ’til next year for the ultimate double-dose of Scott Pilgrim — both the concluding volume of the story and the movie — I still encourage you to pop over to your local library and borrow a volume or two of this over the summer. Grab a beer and a deck chair, sit out outside on a lazy Sunday afternoon and just enjoy the story. Better yet, drop by your local comic book store, your big box book seller or hop on-line and order the book(s) directly from the publisher, Oni Press, and support a wonderfully talented Canadian author for just $11.95 a volume.
We are Sex Bob-Omb! One! Two! Three! Four!