Ramona - Guster

Scott Pilgrim

Author: Bryan Lee O'Malley
Volumes: 6
Publisher: Oni Press, Inc.

Brief Summary:
Scott Pilgrim is 23 and his life is not going anywhere. If anything, he's regressing, what with dating a high schooler and all (super shady times). He's in a band that's really probably likely not very good, has no job and shares a super crappy and tiny apartment with his gay friend Wallace (pretty much the only smaller and crappier apartment I have seen is the one I lived in last year in Pittsburgh). Scott starts seeing a new girl, Ramona Flowers, everywhere and he wants her real bad, so much so that he kind of forgets he has an awkward high school girlfriend. Oops. Well, he gets Ramona, but there's a price (a bigger one than the awkward breakup with Knives Chau (high schooler): he has to defeat her seven evil exes. Wah wah.

Review:
Most of you are probably familiar with Scott Pilgrim already from the movie that came out last year. I watched it with two of my good friends and it was pretty great. I highly recommend it to delightful, nerdy folk. The movie made me want to try the graphic novels again, which I confess I had not liked initially. My first attempt only made it through the first volume, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life. I just didn't get why it was funny. Sad, but true. Then the movie made it clear; the jokes are mostly from video games. This is a key thing to know.

With that knowledge in hand, I re-embarked on a journey through the six volumes of Scott Pilgrim's rather intense/forgetful courtship of Ramona Flowers. The series is really funny, although not at all points. I love a lot of the little things thrown in on the side. For example, at one point in the final volume, Wallace Wells says "J'accuse!*" to Scott and the footnote reads "*frenched." This is one of many such awesome things that made me laugh out loud.

The story line never really engaged me that much though. Scott and Ramona really aren't very likable people, so I didn't care too much about the progression of their relationship. I guess I wanted them to win, but mostly just because the 'evil' folks were so obnoxious that I couldn't stand them winning. However, Scott and Ramona are not the only characters, and some of the supporting cast are freaking awesome. My favorites were Wallace Wells and Kim Pine, who are fantastic in totally different ways. I expected to like Knives Chau (who was pretty awesome in the movie version), but she was super lame and whiny and overly into a loser like Scott.

I really loved how realistic the friendships between a lot of the characters felt (not the evil exes stuff, but just the kids hanging around town). They really seemed to interact like aimless people on the edge of adulthood might. I also want to praise this series for not being heteronormative. Both gays and lesbians can be found here. This is a thing I really love to find in fiction, so props to O'Malley.

I highly recommend this. It's a fun, super nerdy read.

"Why'd you have to be so nice?
A wink and a girlish smile
And why'd you have to punch my eye?
That was something
but I still want you to stay
When I was younger and thought of myself
I never dreamed I'd become like this
A snap of your fingers,
and end to the arguments
Anything for you, love"