Scott Pilgrim 1-6 (Bryan Lee O'Malley)

I've been reading a lot of graphic novels lately.  (As I'm sure some of you surmised from my post on Sandman, quickly followed by one on Scott Pilgrim.  I guess a lot of people have been recommending them to me lately (first those two girls at work, and now my brother).  While I was pretty lukewarm about the Sandman series, however, I loved Scott Pilgrim.

Why?  Well, it's a fun series!  And it takes full advantage of its medium as a comic book.  The

plots are over-the-top and outrageous, but great fun to read.  Imagine this if you will: Scott Pilgrim is your average 20-something post-graduate bum.  He lives with his gay roommate, Wallace Wells, sponging off his stuff instead of getting a job, and has just started dating a 17 year old (Scott is 23), much to his friends' disgust and amusement.  Then, everything changes when Scott meets Ramona.  She's the girl of his dreams.  Literally.  Ramona has an uncanny way of wandering through Scott's head on her delivery route for Amazon.ca.  Then, they finally get to meet during the day.  And start dating.  But, before they can get too serious, Scott first has to fight Ramona's evil ex-boyfriends.  All seven of them.  But, Scott has a few skeletons in his own closet, as well.  Drama and hilarity ensue.

I first heard about this series because of the Michael Cera movie that came out a few years back.  I had liked Cera's performance in Juno, and so when my brother told me about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, I was curious.  And it was a really good movie.  I love video games and comic books, so the film's combination of the two was pretty awesome.

But, this isn't a review about the movie!  We're talking about the book (if you're interested in the movie, you can read my movie review at Cinema Sweetheart's Film Reviews.

If you liked the movie, I would highly recommend the books, since there is so much more to the plot and to the characters in the books.  And if you weren't a huge fan of the film, I would still suggest checking out at least the first couple of books. 

I really loved that the characters were more developed in the graphic novels than in the movies (since there was more room to let them run free).  Plus, there are extra characters who don't make it into the movie at all!  I hope that by this point, most of my readers know how important characters are to me when I'm reading a book.  Plot is certainly important, but highly developed characters are like crack to me.  I was especially pleased with the characters of Roxie, Kim, Wallace, and Joseph.  Roxie is that little pigtailed girl in the picture just above this.  I found her more sympathetic in the books (still evil, but more sympathetic).  Kim comes across as a bit of a bitch in the movie, but in the comics, honestly, she was probably my favorite character (after Wallace, Scott's gay roommate.  That man is perfect).  And of course, I don't think Joseph even makes an appearance in the film.  But, he's bearded and sarcastic, and perfect.

But, it's not just about the characters.  Do you like action?  Well, how about fights with seven evil exes?  Or mysterious sword-wielding Chinese man with sunglasses and an epic black duster jacket?  There are battles of the bands, love triangles, parallelograms, and trapezoids.  Every time I would crack open the next book, I was surprised.  It was just a great collection of books.  I want to go into more details, but I'm afraid I'll start giving spoilers, so I'm going to shut up now.  But, check out the books!!  The first one is Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life.