Scott Pilgrim vs. A Muffin

If you’re like me, you’re painfully behind on new things. like...broken femur painful. About 3 months ago, trailers for a new movie started popping up. This new production caught my eye with it’s flashing lights and Michael Cera awkwardness. It had something to do with Michael Cera wanting to date a quirky girl and being all awkward about it. Wait...that sounds familiar...anyways, each trailer held my attention in its stoney grip of entertainment for all of about 30 seconds, or however long a standard tv trailer is these days. I really didn’t care. I mean, i love Michael Cera. like, a lot. but i just couldn’t be bothered to care about another movie where he’s awkward and the girl is different and quirky and sarcastic and aw they fall in love and they listen to sweet indie music! About the same time i started hearing about something on the dangerous highways of the interwebs. some of my favorite artists on DA kept talking about some guy named Scott Pilgrim and how awesome he was and how much they all loved his comic and his art style. i figured i’d go look this guy up to see what was so awesome about him. and that’s when it all clicked

Scott Pilgrim is a comic book...and they’re making it into a movie...with Michael Cera....

this was from the movie

AWESOME!

But this isn’t a review of the movie, though i may do one of those later if the gods of NMFY allow me to review a not disney movie. we’ll see. but no, instead i will be reviewing the graphic novel that the super awesome movie is based off of.

Scott Pilgrim is the title character of a graphic novel series by Canadian cartoonist and musician, Bryan Lee O’Malley. I. Fucking. LOVE. this series. I want to send O’Malley a fucking fruit basket and like, a damn bunt cake of his choosing, just for creating this joy bringing, giggle inducing, camedically inspiring story. This guy is like, living my dream here! but enough of my geeking out....here’s why it’s awesome:



#1.) First off, we have the art style. It’s simple. it’s not overly complicated, it doesn’t throw so many details at you that you feel like you’re gonna choke on them. it’s just...as many details as are needed to make it feel real and believable. it’s about as many details as you actually notice when you walk into a room

i think O'Malley likes to have Scott point at things

All the characters are pretty well defined. The only thing is sometimes it gets dfficult to tell the difference between some of the girls because a few of them have pretty similar hair styles. but that’s nit-picking, really.

#2.) The characters. there’s something so great about a story with characters that you really feel like you could be friends with. The characters develop and grow, but never really leave the realm of they’re basic character. Scott is always a slightly clueless and lovable screw-up. Ramona pretty much remains a sarcastic mystery, and Knives is pretty much always crazy. But like i said, they do grow and change throughout the story, they just always stay in touch with their home base, as it were. The characters are equal parts hilarity and smarm, with a healthy serving of awkward and obsession.

#3.) It’s set in Toronto, Canada. that may sound really fucking lame, but i think it’s hilarious. Maybe it’s just because i’m American and we all have this odd combination of fascination and apathy towards our snowy, moosey neighbors-to-the-north.

it's really fucking cold there!

#4.) The basic plot. it’s amazing and simple. Take a slightly awkward boy, introduce a really cool and mysterious girl. Boy wants to date girl, and girl agrees mostly out of amusement of boys awkwardness. So far you’re probably asking yourself “ok, Mar, why the HELL are you describing the plot of every Michael Cera movie?” well just shut up, this has nothing to do with that adorably awkward child! now then, before awkward boy can date super cool mysterious girl, he has to DEFEAT HER EXES! i think that’s fucking hilarious! because everyone has baggage, and we all bring that sort of shit into our relationships. it’s just that, most of us don’t have to fight off someone’s baggage in order to date them. also, the whole thing has this NES/Street Fighter thing going on. Whenever an ex is defeated they burst into a pile of coins for dear Scott to pocket and use on bus fair. that shit is hilarious and you know it!

all in all this comic book series is amazing and easily has moved in to be one of my new favorites. regardless of weather or not you’re a comic geek, if you like funny things, or if you grew up with older video games, you should really pick this series up. it’s funny, light hearted, and charming. Of course i can’t guarantee anything for the ending because i have yet to pick up the final volume, but i have full faith that it’ll be awesome. If you want to see more of O’Malley’s work check out his DA page http://radiomaru.deviantart.com/ , or his blog thingy http://radiomaru.com/ .

GO NOW AND READ THE BOOKS!

Matthew Patel is my favorite Evil-Ex!

>Mar