Scott Pilgrim's Finest Summer

Scott Pilgrim's Finest Summer

Along time ago, in 2004, Oni Press published this book.



At the time, it was a very well-liked and cute graphic novel. It revolved around Scott Pilgrim,



A slacker in his twenties who's not very bright and while he's pretty well intentioned, is sort of an asshole. We also met his high schooler Asian girlfriend, Knives who cares for Scott much more than he does for her.



There was also Scott's band and gay roommate, all of whom seem to think very little of Scott for various reasons.



Then Scott met a cute American girl named Ramona flowers. Who used his head for a hyperspace short cut for making her Amazon.ca deliveries.



Scott fell for her and she surprisingly took to Scott. There was only one problem...



Ramona has seven evil exes that Scott must defeat if he is to be with her. Before this point of the book's first volume, the book had been a pseudo-realistic depiction of people in a post-undergrad daze, living in Toronto. The revelation about the evil ex-boyfriend--and his defeat with the musical power of friendship--is what set the tone of the comic's video game/pop culture magical realism that would be the norm for the book from then on.

Personally, I was a tad put-off by the end of the first volume. I had enjoyed the more realistic slice-of-life tone of the story and wasn't sure how I felt about the pretty silly main plot of the story. Either way, I decided to read the second volume, then the third, then the fourth. The fifth I quickly snatched the day of release.

With each book, the art definitely got better and better. More than that though, despite all the silliness, the book has always maintained a great emotional core that has grown more and more with each volume. There is one moment in the latest volume that had me getting a little teary eyed because it was an entirely emotionally true moment built on knowing these characters for five years.

If you have not read Scott Pilgrim then I urge you to do so. If you have, then we have a lot to look forward to



Coming out on July 20th, Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour will be the end of the Pilgrim Saga. Ramona's gone. Kim's moved away. Scott lives with his parents and there is only one ex left. Shit is going down.

There's of course more! On August 13th comes...



The absurdly accurate film adaptation comes from Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and creator of Spaced. It also stars Michael Cera who I actually worked with in my past. He.. he's a really interesting cat. Very sarcastic and I got along with him well. For all of you who think he can only act as Michael Cera-ish, well, then you really don't know that it's very different from how he is in real life. The dude is witty as fuck.

Want to see a trailer for it? Here you go:


Now mind you, I may seem like I'm biased for all this but it's for good reason. I've already seen this film THREE TIMES! Holy fuck, six hours of my life has been spent watching this film and it hasn't even been released yet. It hast to be a good film if I've opted to see it three times, right?

And as if that wasn't enough, there's still a whole lot more! A Scott Pilgrim video game will be released in August for Playstation Network with a 360 version coming over Live sometime in the next year.



And if there's any question if this game will be fun, just look at this clip of it.




And if you're looking for something cute, there's this coming in July:



Most of all, if you're in L.A. tomorrow night, there's this Scott Pilgrim event going on;



I guess when it's all said and done, Scott's not really an asshole. he's not exactly a good role model, he's just a really stereotypical 20-something loser: Unemployed, in a crappy band, mooches off his friends, etc. It's no wonder a lot of readers relate to his situation as there's something that resonates with them in all that description of him.

He does sort of treat Knives like dirt, but it's not really intentional (in that he didn't set out to screw her around, it just happened because he was too much of a coward to end it) but like any good protagonist, he does grow up through the volumes.

So yes. Great ready for Scott Pilgrim... VS THE WORLD!