I am one of the people who came to this series through the movie. Despite coming away from the first volume with the same sense of feeling too old that the movie gave me, I loved this one in spite of myself.
Scott Pilgrim is a twenty-something in Toronto that walks a fine line between being charmingly indolent and a being a complete waste of space. He spends his time either playing bass with his band, Sex Bob-omb, or going on somewhat uncomfortable outings with his teenage girlfriend, Knives Chau, and listening to her play-by-plays of Yearbook Club drama. (This is not as creepy as it sounds, due to Scott's crippling emotional immaturity, and the decidedly non-physical nature of their relationship.) His lazy, self-absorbed routine is interrupted by the appearance of a rollerblading American girl named Ramona Flowers, who begins appearing in his dreams and then suddenly shows up at the library. As Scott tries to find out more about this quirky temptress, he finds himself in the crosshairs of Ramona's Evil Ex-Boyfriends, who apparently have promised violence (of the video game variety) against anyone who dares to try and get close to her.
This graphic novel is full of references to things from my own teen years, which is awesome. Unfortunately, these references are put into a context where they are celebrated as retro-chic by people a lot younger than me. I simultaneously feel like I get it and that I am so not cool enough to be reading this, which is weird. But I've learned to deal with it, I think.
The book is a fantastic example of magical realism for people that need shiny things and can't handle staid books by Marquez or Allende. It begins as a relatively mundane portrait of hipsters doing whatever it is that hipsters do, with a few touches of video-game aesthetic and breaking of the fourth wall. By the time the first Evil Ex shows up, though, the book suddenly explodes in a mad fit of musical fight scenes, mystical summoning powers, subspace highways, and bad guys dissolving into coins. It can occasionally be hard on those of us without short attention spans, but the blending of the disaffected young people story with the kung-fu fight quest story is actually pretty awesome.
I definitely like the art here, too. Most people seem to classify it as a manga homage, which is accurate, but my mind tends to associate it more with the kind of casual/messy webcomic art that is popular online right now. There are no elaborate panels that can be thrown off track by an odd perspective or wonkily-drawn arm, and the big-eyed exaggeration of the facial expressions is often hilarious, in my opinion. Again, there is a lot of huge bold type that slaps the reader across the face here and there, but once you get used to the feel of the book, it works just fine.
Most of the bad things I've read about this book have boiled down either to backlash from its new popularity or to simple personal opinion. Which is all fine. Personally, I ate this one up. It's trendy without being pretentious, sarcastic without being insulting, and cute without being saccharine. It's also consistently funny, especially if you grew up in the 90s. And yes, I was actually a teen in the 90s, just like the author. So get off my lawn, you damned kids.
Anyway, definitely worth checking out. I'll be picking up the next volumes at the next opportunity.
Verdict: 5 / 5
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