Scott Pilgrim Vol 1 Scott Pilgrims Precious Little Life
Scott Pilgrim Vol 1 Scott Pilgrims Precious Little Life
Scott Pilgrim’s life is so awesome. He’s 23 years old, in a rock band, “between jobs,” and dating a cute high school girl. Everything’s fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms Flowers isn’t covered in rose petals. Ramona’s seven evil ex-boyfriends stand in the way between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott beat the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life upside-down?
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Star Meh.
This comic is indeed polarizing, you’ll either love it or you’ll roll your eyes.
I’ve read a lot of manga, I know geek culture, I understand what this comic is attempting to do, and while its art influences are clearly in manga, it took nothing from manga storywise that makes them so great and appealing.
The way in which this chapter ended with the teamwork power and boss-level idea had me wincing. It felt as though his ideas were left in the wash too long and all the colors had faded out; there was nothing crisp or refreshing, no real deep investigation, nothing that took me to a new place, just a bland mish-mash amalgamation of pop-culture throwaways. Being in a band is the automatic ticket to cool? How utterly original. The dialogue plastic, ready-made, and now with a live-action movie deal on the way, perfect fodder for the Hollywood machine.
Another commentor wrote about the fetishizing of influences and name drops to which I have to agree with strongly. It detracts from the characters, it gets in the way of the story, it lacks humility, and it takes the spotlight off the characters and squarely onto the artist with their vast superior knowledge of pop-culture reference. “Yeah? Super Mario Bros right? You get it? It’s funny right? I wrote that.” That’s not to say it can’t be pulled off- shows like Venture Brothers come to mind who seem to have mastered it beautifully, or FLCL which employed references to create visual zaniness. If too blatant with nothing to back it up it can be perceived as simply flexing your muscles which in turn becomes a mindless gesture, a symptom of the “Look at me!” Generation. This along with the comic’s very self-conscious “Am I cool yet?” motif was a real turn off.
If you’re just starting out reading slice-of-life type mangas/comics with this then it’s an ok place to start, but really this pales in comparison to what’s out there. I’d recommend going to the source of the influence, to mangas like Nana, Paradise Kiss, even the ones that are more out there like 20th Century Boys or Welcome to the NHK! that will give you far more mileage out of your comic enjoyment experience.
4 Stars And now for something completely different.
It’s hard to write a review for something like Scott Pilgrim so I’ll be brief.
Were you born around 1979-1987? Do you like old school video games and punk rock? If so then this book is for you.
The basic plot of the book follows Scott Pilgrim, a 20 something Canadian slacker, as he attempts to woo Ramona Flowers by defeating her seven evil exes. What follows is a mangaesque pop culture extravaganza. It’s also hilariously addictive. It’s refreshing to see something so unique out there on the market. Sit back. Read this book. Let the sheer awesomeness of Scott Pilgrim take over. It’s new. It’s different. It’s fantastic. The characters are great. The humor is priceless. The black and white art is a perfect fit. If you’re feeling brave, jump into the world of Scott Pilgrim. It’s good times.
5 Stars Rocks out as only canadians can…
Scott Pilgrim might just very well be one of the funniest and most enjoyable things I’ve read in the last five years. The pacing is swift, the dialogue is witty, the plot simultaneously familiar and mundane and also completely outlandish and awesome. The closest thing I’ve seen in comics to Veronica Mars (and that’s not saying one is better than the other), and I think a reviewers quote of VM also sums up Scott Pilgrim nicely: it “explores the fears and anxieties of near adulthood without belittling them.” If you haven’t already purchased this book, do it.
3 Stars Fantastic art and disappointing writing
I have found that most of the reviews of this book thus far have been the product of either stuttering enthusiasm or unwarranted spite, an unpleasant situation owing to the fact that Scott Pilgrim is a polarizing book, a book that caters to a very specific type of person.
I am not, as it turns out, that type of person.
But, I’m not the sort of person who likes to waste time gushing mindless praise or spewing mindless vitriol either–LET’S GET EVENHANDED!
For those of you sitting on the fence about whether to read this: I was a fence-sitter too. There were aspects of this book that attracted me: the dynamic, manga-inflected art, the melding of the whimsical with the mundane, the goofy humor. But there were things I’d heard about and noticed from the previews that I found equally off-putting, namely the plethora of references to videogames and indie-rock culture.
Now, I have NO problem with either videogames or indie-rock, both things I’ve grown up with and enjoyed. What I DO have a problem with is this 21st century habit of fetishizing our influences and making compulsive name-drops, this way we’ve confused Being Cool with Mentioning Things That Are Cool. This isn’t to say I’m 100% against this sort of thing, but there’s a specific time and place to use it in storytelling, and there is such a thing as overkill. Like words, references are good when you’re using them to say something, and bad when you’re using them to show off.
This reference-heavy mentality informs Scott Pilgrim to a hefty degree, and I feel it does so against creator/artist/writer Brian O’Malley’s better artistic instincts. The visual nuance (as has been stated elsewhere, his facial expressions are superb; he gets an incredible degree of emotional mileage out of very simple shapes) found in the book seemed to indicate to me somebody far cleverer than his writing and characterizations let on.
I’ll state this forthrightly: the characters in this book are weak, the protagonist glaringly so. I understand that it’s the first in a six-book series and so there’s further character development to be had, but if a reader such as myself can’t find the characters compelling enough by the end of the first book, then we aren’t going to keep reading. The hero comes off as an unlikeable, emotionally immature doofus, which would be fine if he was given positive traits as well, but he isn’t. Most of the other characters, with the exception of Wallace Wells, Scott’s gay roommate and Knives Chau, Scott’s 17-year-old “girlfriend,” seem to be little more than hip-looking extras, and that extends even to the girl Scott pines after and who is the catalyst for basically the entire plot (Scott must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends, etc).
A lot of people have written that they were hooked by the slice-of-life tone of most of this book and then taken aback by the incredibly silly ending, but I felt just the opposite–the book works best at its silliest and most cartoony, lampooning the conventions of manga and videogames (a justified use of referencing, for once). There’s a very good punch-line at the end of the “boss fight.” It was the only thing in the book that made me laugh out loud, and it felt more real and more genuine to me than all the drama that had unfolded beforehand.
5 Stars Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life Vol. 1
I first found out about Scott Pilgrim (by mistake) online when I was looking for modern manga artwork I needed for reference. Having pondered over O’Malley’s website, reading the samples of excerpts from the books; I finally bought the book. When I first started to read the first book, I immediately fell in love with the concept. I just loved the storyline and how the plot was represented. There is a good mixture of comedy and action (especially action) the entire book is TNA from the beginning to end. There is a great deal of actual sights/places in the book that are exact to that in Toronto. Most of all of the locations in the book are real, which gives it a great touch. I have lent this book to many people who are much more interested in manga and anime than me. They love it!
The ending could have been a bit better. (It was a pretty cheesy fight scene I have to admit).
The overall art in the book is not Salvador Dali’s work! but it’s sufficient enough!
I would recommend this to anyone who likes manga, or basically anyone you know.
Filed under: Comic Book Reviews