(article spoilers!) i think the author is correct in that Vol 3 is troubled, but i'm not sure he's correct as to why. we'll see how it goes with Vol 4!
EDIT: Here is an article about the article!
EDIT: My main thing here is that a reputable publication has done an in-depth article about my work, whether that article is full of insight (I think it has some) or bonkers (not for me to say). I'm flattered, etc.
After reading that, i went to a friend's house and on the TV were the Scream Awards, and there was tons of stuff about comics on them! What is this cultural mountain comics have climbed?
The Scream Awards had a disturbing effect on me. I got this feeling like we're all 14 years old and there are beautiful girls pretending to like us in order to get something they want from us. There's this weird air of fakeness and placation and softcore porn and the feeling that any minute now they'll all laugh in our faces, jump in the back of some jock's convertible, and drive away with our souls!!!
Admittedly I wasn't really paying attention and I just kept incredulously repeating phrases I heard: "COMICON?? FRANK MILLER??! BEST SUPERHERO???? ROBERT KIRKMAN!??!" Everyone definitely wanted me to shut up. Anyway, I know I saw Kirkman go up, but I think it was for Marvel Zombies, rather than his creator-owned work. Marvel Zombies wins over the Walking Dead?? Who do I payola for that kind of result? Plus they were showing unreleased footage from new movies?? It was like comicon all over again! It's creepy! (The Grind House footage looked sweet, though.)
Anyway, I'm disturbed by the whole thing, the new faux-legitimacy of comics, and I'm obviously this huge cynical jerk waiting for the bubble to burst. Or maybe I just have low self-esteem and a profound fear of success. I just hope they make my movie soon! ^_____^
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destroyerzooey- Bryan Lee O'Malley
- RADIOMARU.com
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vNES
WARNING: You may never 'work' at work again, although for your work it's probably no big deal...
This guy is a hack reviewer. He obviously doesn't know much about Scott Pilgrim. What did he miss? "..Wallace, Scott's GAY drunken roommate.." Did this guy leave that out for wider audience acceptance of his review?!!?
Also, the title of the review would be more suited as "Let's just compare Scott Pilgrim to manga, since I need to make a 12 page review"
"Which Scott would you rather read about: Scott from Volume 3, lying heartbroken in the middle of the road, or Scott from Volume 2, daffily explaining his ideas about Rome?" This bugs me too, it's as thought Scott's not allowed to go through more personality traits then just "being daffy".
Eh. I'm not gonna like it when people start reviewing my stuff!!.. When I MAKE stuff that is..
anyway, i thought the review was interesting. i love all the intricate backstory, so i gobbled up vol 3 without noticing anything amiss, but it's always interesting to hear what someone else got out of it.
Everything else I said though was serious opinion.
and i think he is wrong thinking we dont want an epic ... i want a epic ... i want an epic i want it to have dark moments and funny moments .. and kick ass fights.
i think it rocks ... you should keep it up.
you will be missed at SPX
Whatever!
That guy fucking sucks and should go to reviewing shitty bands instead, because he's a terrible pretentious writer. I agreed with some of his points, but he made me feel shitty as hell for doing so.
FUCK.
But my real argument is that the reviewer's kind of being a boy about this. If the great thing is that shojo and shonen manga are being fused into some unholy Canadian rock monster, you can't leave out the girls. I mean, we get Wallace's pretty face, but without the desperate high-schoolish histrionics, where's the heart? What makes Scott Pilgrim great is that it's not just another book about attaining unattainably cool chicks that game-addled boys can pretend to identify with while sighing longingly. If it were that, I wouldn't care about it and neither would a lot of other people.
(Or maybe this is all just my kneejerk reaction to anyone who seems to be saying "Avoid complexity! Dumb is better!" even if that's not what he actually means. Even if he notices a problem, I'm quite sure he hasn't found the solution.)
Maybe I'm the only one who got the joke. But I thought it was funny. Maybe nobody else read re-read the first two books to prep for 3? Maybe I'm the only one who likes lemonade?
Love!
P.S.
Y'all should calm down.
(as I struggle through laying out a flashback scene...)
(As to why, that's just me, but I think there was a bit of a pacing problem. The Kim slice of life was a bit uninteresting. Lisa was a cool character but she totally disappears later on.)
(And if I should have a complaint about vol 3 is that there's almost no Knives in it, and she's hilarious)
The problem to me was in the flashbacks. Some of them were confusing, but more than that, they broke up the action into segments that were really just too short for you to get into. The flashback in Scott 2 was brilliant, and maybe if we had gotten a similar long scene of Scott and Envy it would have been easier to relate.
It was still awesome though, and while I'm not going to pretend like the writer was talking out his ass, I am going to say that on the whole, I disagree with him, as the finale in Scott 3 had a lot more oomph to it then Scott 2.
(My biggest problem with your books is that they're too short! ;)
also, shame on you for making hip looking characters like the japanese do. shame.
1. He has selective something brain-itis. He gets a wrong idea in his head and he'll selectively omit points that don't correspond to it. He thinks there is a difference between Scott v2 and Scott v3, rather than him being one character, like you suddenly in the middle of the story thought "WHOA I'LL GIVE HIM A BACKSTORY SUDDENLY!" and changed him completely. Man, this guy is going to be shocked when it is further revealed that Ramona has some sort of dark and mysterious past. Was I wrong in assuming from the start that basically everyone was going to have a dark and mysterious past? The breakup with Envy was hinted at and referred to all the way in v1., why wasn't this guy paying attention? Snore, thanks for the input, chief.
2. DUM DOWN COMIC PLZ. Nevermind stretching your limits and striving for depth, or GASP, telling the story you intended on telling from the start. He'd much prefer you stick to brainless "fun" things, and leave the serious stuff for the growed ups. How sweet of him to be concerned! What a douchey and insulting thing to say.
Any valid points he had to make were unfortunately overshadowed by his obtuse observations. Is it really hard for people to be objective?
He has no thesis, he rambles, he does not support his points, and he ultimately proves nothing other than his inability to grasp the characterization of Scott over the course of these first three books. The length at which he goes to show the fact that the series is influenced by manga, video games and indie rock is somewhat self-indulgent to say the least and says nothing that hasn't already been said several times before, including in the very articles he makes reference to throughout the review. One could imagine he is hoping to somehow magically justify the broad claims he makes in the last three parts of the review through sheer force of lots-of-unrelated-comparisons-and-pretty-s
Also, who uses the word "natch" in a sentence, thus proving he is scum.
That is all.
i... don't know? i thought the flashbacks and the overall structure could have used a few rewrites, basically. he's on the trail, but i don't think he's quite got it. but admittedly there isn't too much to get, and the jury's still out because the series is only halfway done. if the next book is totally shitty, then people should feel free to dismiss the whole thing (like IGN already did!), but i'm glad SLATE-guy still wants to read more.
And as far as Robert Kirkman goes, yeah, Walking Dead is way better than Marvel Zombies, but Zombies is still one of the best things (if not the best thing) that Marvel Published this year. And there's no one at Marvel that deserves an award more than Kirkman (except for Warren Ellis, Nextwave rocks my socks).
Both IGN and Slate still say they are going to pick up Vol. 4 - which makes me think this sort of extreme picking apart of your work is the result of it becoming very popular and still somewhat underground. People have reputations to uphold, I guess? Especially critics?
It's true love.
You would be doing your fans a HUGE favor if you ignored that cocky cock and told your story EXACTLY as you see fit. Thats why we like it in the first place.
DavidJC
Spencer Carnage
ofcourseyeah.blogspot.com
bad press is still press.
"it's a hopeful sign that O'Malley has learned that his fans don't need epic works of art-rock; we just want each book to be a perfect little rock 'n' roll song."
*sigh*
I'm not mad at him or anything, no knee-jerk fanboy sword-swinging, since you're already taking what he's said in admirable stride. I'm just glad you're writing stuff that speaks to people like me instead of people like him.
I love your work. Scott Pilgrim is fantastic. Thank you for creating.
- Jux