Once I chewed through every Scott Pilgrim book currently available, I felt a little bereft. What was I going to do? I couldn’t just jump into another graphic novel. What if it wasn’t funny enough? What if there wasn’t any magical-realismesque video game action? What if, what if it wasn’t any good?

Lucky for me the answer came in the form of a big box of graphic novels from Largehearted boy. In that treasure trove, I unearthed Lost At Sea, Bryan Lee O’Malley’s first book.

It was the perfect balm for my Scott Pilgrim withdrawal.

How so? Because it was the not so bad, not so good way to get over my Scottaholism.

Lost at Sea is a road trip graphic novel about four Canadian teens driving home from California. The star of the book is Raleigh, an intellectually gifted 18-year-old who has no soul. At least she doesn’t think she has a soul, she’s pretty sure a cat stole it when she was younger.

She happened upon this trio of classmates coincidence in California, where Raleigh was supposed to be visiting her estranged father but instead had hooked up with her Internet boyfriend.

What I liked about this one is that you can see glimpses of Scott Pilgrim in it. The friendships where affection is shown through acerbic wit and sarcasm, the floundering hero looking trying to come of age, and the littlest bit of music.

What I didn’t like about this one is that it feels really floaty. A lot of questions are brought up or insinuated but never fully explained or answered. At one point Raleigh vaguely mentions that her mother sold her (and her sisters) to a man in the very same Oregon town the group is stuck in after their car breaks down. Is this true? I can’t tell.

I’m not entirely sure what really happened with the Internet boyfriend either. Like I said it’s kind of floaty.

However, there is a scene towards the end of the book where the group is trying to capture stray cats in the hopes of helping Raleigh get her soul back. It’s beautiful, funny, and poignant. Probably worth the price of reading the book alone. It so perfectly captures the lengths true friends will go to when you’re in need.

This is one of those books I’d probably have adored when I was about twenty-two. There’s just something about the hopeless romanticism, the melodrama, and the what’s it all mean-ness of it that will appeal to young people who are at that point in their lives. Which, I guess, kind of makes sense, since the book is aimed at the late-teen crowd.

Like I said, it’s okay. There are worse ways to spend an hour. However, if you’re looking for a good step down from Scott Pilgrim while you wait the arrival of the last one, it’s absolutely perfect.

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I was so excited to read Scott Pilgirm’s Finest Hour, the sixth and final volume in the series, that even though I had ordered it for ridiculously cheap, the moment I got near Big Brain Comics last Tuesday I caved and bought another copy. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to wait another day to find out what happend to Scott, Ramona, and their gang of wry sidekicks.

Volume 6 takes place roughly four months after Volume 5. Ramona’s MIA, Scott’s vegging in an apartment paid for by his parents, and Sex Bob-Omb has broken up. Things are not going well for our favorite Canadian hipster doofus.

Eventually that gang of wry sidekicks rouses Scott from his funk and forces him to face his pathetic life and the seventh evil-ex Gideon Graves. It is the battle we’ve all been waiting for and it’s well worth the wait. If it seems I’m being intentionally vague, it’s because I am. I don’t want to be a spoiler. Bryan Lee O’Malley reveals a lot about where the characters are going, some of it is shocking, some of it’s not. However, I don’t want to ruin any of the delicious surprises Volume 6 has.

Endings are hard, so it was with a little bit of trepidation that I jumped into Volume 6. Since I was one of the first of my friends to read it, many have asked what I thought.

“He ends it well,” I told each of them. It sounds like damning with faint praise, but that’s not it at all. There were many routes O’Malley could have taken. He could have gone down the schmaltzy sentimental route which would have felt like being manipulated. He could have come at us from out of nowhere with a bunch of left field surprises which would have felt like selling out the characters for the sake of shock. Instead he stays true to his characters and delivers an ending that is full of optimism and epic video-gamesque battles.

What O’Malley has created here is a funny, touching coming of age tale for twentysomethings. It’s about letting go of childish things, dumping that bullshit emotional baggage (literally and figuratively) that we all like to cling to in our 20s (that whole “I’m so broken and flawed and my pain make me unique and mysterious” bullshit) and opening yourself up to possibility. It sounds hokey, but in his hands it’s not at all.

No, in O’Malley’s hands it’s funny and fun and surprisingly touching. Oh, just go buy the books already. Read them now before the movie ruins everything (not that I expect the movie to be bad, but because it will spoil all the surprising things in the books).

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Thanks to my pal, Jeff who runs Books & Bars, Max and and I were lucky enough to get a sneak preview of Scott Pilgrim vs The World Thursday night.

It was awesome! The movie retains all the charm of the books about Canadian slacker Scott Pilgrim and his quest to win the heart of Ramona Flowers by conquering her evil exes in escalating battles.

If you haven’t been able to tell, I’ve been a little bit obsessed with all things Scott Pilgrim for most of the summer. It’s been pretty bad. I love Scott Pilgrim. I don’t think I’ve had a conversation with anyone since about May that didn’t mention Scott Pilgrim. Then when you have the character portrayed by Michael Cera, well come on. . . how can I resist?

Seeing a book (or series of books in this case) you love turned into a movie can often be bittersweet. It’s never, ever, ever the same. Never. Inevitably your favorite bit or sub-story or secondary character isn’t going to come across on the big screen the way it does on the page.

There is bound to be some disappointment, and I was a little disappointed. But it stems from the fact that the film-makers told a different story than the one I wanted to see. Does that mean the story and movie are bad? No. Do I think it could have been stronger? Yes. The movie seemed to sacrifice important emotional backstory in favor of whippy-zippy action scenes. Sure video-game-like battles are more visually exciting, but the emotional backstory would have made for a more satisfying ending. The movie focussed more on Scott’s battle with the exes than Scott’s battle with his personal demons. I wanted more demons, because in the books the exes are just a rack to hang the personal story on. Does that make sense?

It’s really hard to write about a movie without giving away everything.

Anyway, all that nonsense is getting in the way of what’s important here. The movie is fun. It’s sweet and sarcastic and Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells kicks all kinds of ass. If they gave an Academy Award for casting a movie so closely to the book, this movie would win it. The only one I was a little disappointed in was Envy Adams, but then I was disappointed in her entire role in the film. In the books she plays a much bigger part in Scott’s hero’s journey and in the movie she’s reduced to what is, essentially, a cameo. Plus, I think Kim Pine gets a bit of the shaft — she’s a better character in the book.

This would all be so much easier to talk about if you’d go see the movie (and read the books). So do that. It’s a good movie and you will laugh and cheer and fall a little in love with Scott & Ramona. So go see it and then let’s talk about it, okay?

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The last time we visited our favorite Canadian Hipster doofus, he was getting in deep with Ramona Flowers, she of the seven evil exes. So deep that the couple has shacked up. What? Our favorite slacker has gotten a job and a live-in girlfriend? How can this be.

Alas, it is s. But no need to worry the Scott Pilgrim manages to make becoming a grown up totally awesome.

Volume five opens with Scott’s birthday party where he proclaims he’s going to be the best 24-year-old ever. But being 24 isn’t proving too easy for Scott. Two of Ramona’s evil-exes are back and they brought robots.

ROBOTS!

Did you just nearly faint with glee? Because I did. So there are the robots and Ramona’s head keeps doing this weird-glowy thing whenever she’s upset. It’s been glowing a lot. Especially when good ol’ Knives Chau comes around to kick Ramona’s ass. See, Knives just found out that while Scott was dating her he as also starting to see Ramona. Knives gets the best line in this book:

You stole him with with your advanced American slut technology. You are not nice!

Like Knives, Ramona is none-too-thrilled to learn of the cheating. But after getting shit-faced drunk at a party she seems to have forgiven Scott.

But for poor Scott things get worse. While Ramona showers and contemplates the future of their relationship, Scott’s BFF Kim (the drummer in Sex-Bob-Omb) is kidnapped by the evil-exes. When he returns from saving his life, Ramona tries to make a confession and then disappears. Left in her wake is a letter labeled “Gideon” and a strange cat.

The rest of the book follows Scott as he copes with his loss.

Most of Volume 5 feels a little bit like a ramp up to Volume 6 (out July 20). Kind of like how the movie Spiderman felt like it’s sole purpose was to introduce characters for Spiderman 2 where all the good stuff takes place. That’s what Volume 5 is. . . scene setting. Funny, entertaining scene-setting, but scene-setting nonetheless.

I still can’t wait for Volume 6. I’m obsessed. And terrified. I’m not sure what kind of ending will be satisfying, but I have faith that Bryan Lee O’Malley can pull it off.

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Every time I start to write about one of the books in the Scott Pilgrim series, I thumb through the book to refresh my memory. Without fail, each page I land on brings a giant smile to my face. It’s probably my job as a “reviewer” (in quotes because I’m not sure I really review books so much as talk about them and being a book talker sounds dumb) to explain exactly what it is about these books that’s so appealing. Now I’m talking about Volume 4 of the six-volume series and I still haven’t captured the magic.

Perhaps Scott Pilgrim is something you have to experience. After I finished the first two volumes, I loaned them to my 11-year-old nephew Max. He devoured them quickly and asked for the rest of the series. He finished it in a day or two. That’s how awesome these books are.

I am not surprised that Max and I love the books equally. He probably got all the video game references and inside jokes that went right by me. I’d also wager he didn’t get many (if any) of the indie rock references. See? There’s something for everyone.

Volume 4, Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together finds Scott at an emotional crossroads. He can either continue on in his unemployed, sharing a bed with Wallace, his gay roommate, ways or he can pony up and act like an adult.

This inability to grow up or at least start acting like a grown-up puts a lot of strain on Scott’s relationship with Ramona. While you can tell she loves him, she’s really ready for him to start putting some effort into life.

Then, of course there’s the exes to deal with — for both Scott and Ramona. Scott’s ex is less on the evil side and more on the romantically dangerous side. Ramona’s ex is, of course, evil, but not an ex-boyfriend. Shock!

This volume is not as full of the silly videogame fighting (though still with the life as a videogame stuff — Scott gets 999 exp points when he gets a job), it does a lot of move the story of Ramona and Scott’s relationship forward. It’s nice because you can see O’Malley raising the emotional stakes as the series races to its conclusion. And gah, I cannot wait for Volume 6 to come out.

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