O’Malley, Bryan Lee. Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life. Portland, OR: Oni, 2004.
Precious Little Life is the first in series of critically-acclaimed graphic novels by writer-artist Bryan Lee O’Malley. This comic, like the others in the series, is a paperback book rather than a magazine.
Scott is 23 going on 17. He is immature, dating a high schooler, unemployed, and mooching off his roommate. He is even in a band, Sex Bob-omb. (When I was young, bands were cool and dangerous. Now they can be full of video game-playing, comics-reading nerds like Scott Pilgrim.) He runs from trouble. He is a jerk to nearly everyone he knows. Fortunately for him, they seem to care about him anyway and stand up to help him.
Scott’s immaturity is epitomized by his dating a high-school girl, Knives Chau, who hasn’t even kissed a boy. His friends and sister confront him, but he justifies himself. He seems satisfied with a simple, no-pressure relationship with a girl whose world of school and conservative, Chinese family is even smaller than his own.
His satisfaction with Knives disappears when he meets and falls in love with Ramona Flowers, a woman his own age who has a lot more going on. This is complicated by the fact that Knives is falling in love with him, or at least the adventure and independence he represents to her. In attempting a retreat to a simpler time (he even takes Knives by his childhood home, though is family moved out), he unwittingly open’s her eyes to a new world where she can try things she never imagined doing before.
That is only the beginning of the complications. To date Ramona, he must defeat her seven evil exes. Fortunately, Scott is a good fighter, having learned from video games (his defeated opponents disappear in a “pop” leaving a little pile of coins behind). In this volume, the first evil ex makes his appearance.
The fight may be the main fantasy element of the book, but fantastic things begin with Ramona, who skates through Scott’s dreams to deliver packages because a subspace highway runs through his head—and there isn’t much traffic there. An opposing band knocks out the crowd with lightning and Kirby crackle. Scott’s Toronto is a little bit magical.
One can probably read this book as a stand-alone story. However, it is definitely the start of a series. If you can’t leave something at “to be continued,” you may want to skim the series to see if you’re willing to commit. Alternatively, the movie adaption presents the main story line for the whole series.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Film)
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