I feel like I have a never-ending supply of old notes, sketches, odds and ends, but, uh, I don't. Anyway, here's some more.

That page there is the FIRST PAGE EVER DRAWN!

And if you click here, you can see the original plot outline for the first half of Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, scribbled down the margin of a page of notes.

On my flickr there's some other stuff, like pages of script, and I even dug up one of the original release party flyers.

Early notes as I prepared to write the first Scott Pilgrim. Click to make big.

Note uncertainty about the band name, etc... it was a while before I was fully comfortable with "Sex Bob-omb". Because it's idiotic. But at least it's idiotic in a way that is true to the characters!

I found some earlier notes (from 2002) and see that I had whittled the characters down from a larger number.

Stephen Stills was the last "final" character to appear. Young Neil was named first - although he was originally an actual young kid, for HILARIOUS purposes - and Stills flowed naturally out of that, I guess.

Originally, Scott had a number of friends based on old characters I made up in high school and stuff. Of these, only Kim Pine survived (thank god).

He also had multiple roommates.

I am really happy that I figured out a little thing called "narrative economy" between conceiving this book and executing it.

Anyway, this scrap of notes is from pretty much immediately before I wrote the first book.

The Hollywood Reporter prints a story hastily sent in by someone's publicist. Nobody fact-checks anything. The rest of the internet / world hastily copies the facts in the article into their own hastily-published articles. It's amazing!

Anyway, I can "confirm" that Michael Cera is going to play Scott Pilgrim in this movie adaptation.

It is not called "Scott Pilgrim's Little Life", as the whole internet has been saying. Gee, I wonder why they took out "precious", the internet wonders? Maybe because some idiot made an error while filing the story? No, couldn't be. There must be some deeper meaning.

It isn't even called Precious Little Life, but I defer to the film's creators as to when and how they want to make their announcements.

Yes, there is a screenplay (sorry, imdb). I can tell you that I read the first draft in March 2006, and the second draft was submitted in October, just before the writer's strike. Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright co-wrote it. Edgar Wright is directing the film.

Any script reviews you've seen online were probably of the first (2006) draft.

Yes, the studio (Universal) is "eyeing a fall start".

Yes, it is based on the entire story arc, not just the first book, and yes we talked a lot about what should happen in the later parts of the story, but at the same time we have already diverged significantly. It is a complimentary story, not an exact copy.

Yes, Edgar Wright is a fine fellow who has included me since the very start (late '04 / early '05).

Blah, blah, blah.

I honestly had no idea this was going to be announced this week. I am in LA for no reason connected to this movie thing. We just came out here for fun!

As I am Unimportant, I seriously doubt many people care what I have to say on this subject, but there you have it. The truth as it stands, for my readers.

--

Reminder: I am signing at Meltdown tomorrow from 2-4 PM. Los Angeles.

Here is a picture I drew. I was gonna use it for a thing but I dunno if I will, so here it is.


Edit to add: I made wallpapers of this image in different sizes, and updated the scottpilgrim.com Media page with a bunch of additional fanart and icons.

Here's something I drew.

I posted a little rant earlier but I took it offline, because... whatever.

Poll #1096172 November 27th's Extra-Meaningless Poll
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

How much do you love me?

Who is better?

SPECIAL FOR PSYCHICS: When will Scott Pilgrim Vol 5 ship? (6-month spread)

BONUS! What will the title of Volume 5 be? (Enter your own!)

Wizard quizzes me on influences and homages in Scott Pilgrim. This is a cute article that I completely forgot ever answering questions for. Big ups to Kiel Phegley at Wizard.

There are no spoilers in it - it's about the series to date, but not at all about Volume 4. I think I answered the questions either at MoCCA or sometime over the summer.

I am going to attempt a "cut" in order to hide spoilers within this post for those who aren't ready to be spoiled. The idea is that you read spoilers after you've read the book, at which point they cease to be spoilers, because you already know everything. Right? Anyway, don't click on the click if you don't want spoilers.

( Read more... )

Check it out if you dare! Looking at these pages will uncover a relatively minor spoiler, but it's something that I successfully kept under wraps until today. I will talk about the book more LATER.

November 14th is the release date! Today is the day! BUT: This is a post for people who don't have Scott Pilgrim Volume 4. Feel free to whine, complain, speculate and ask questions about previous books.

If you have a really great / tragic / hilarious / valid reason for NOT being able to get a copy of Volume 4, and can convince me that you reeeeeally need it, please share. I have a few copies of the book here and will consider spreading the love around.

Later today I'll start a spoilers thread for people as they start to find and read the book, so if you're planning to do that, you can wait! As soon as you get the book, you're an outlaw from the comments on this post.

In honour of Halloween, there is a non-threatening, pastel-colored, silly, cutesy, anime-styled new computer wallpaper now available on scottpilgrim.com!



This one is part of an image that will be the cover of a forthcoming issue of DRAW! Magazine, featuring an interview with me and a bunch of exclusive sketchbook art and whatnot.

It's kinda looking like the book will get delayed until Nov. 14th because of shipping issues, so I'll try and do up this Kim/Wallace wallpaper that I've been thinking about.

I got a first-bound copy of the book yesterday and it is to my liking, so I believe we will share it with you all.

I went ahead and added both FREE SCOTT PILGRIM (2006) and my material from COMICS FESTIVAL (2007) to the scottpilgrim.com Previews page.

Now everything is all in one place. Phew.

Old sketch collage (developmental work and Volume 1 stuff):



Volume 4 watercolor sketches, done a year ago this week (!):

Monday! October 15th! New Scott Pilgrim website! Designed and implemented by Dunderbug! Much writing, coding and photoshopping by yours truly!

Things of note:

1) Ten page preview of Volume 4! (Also: Huge previews of the previous volumes, for new readers!)

2) NING: I have started a Scott Pilgrim Ning. This is a newfangled online forum deal. I put a secret link to it on the Scott Pilgrim teaser site ages ago, which apparently only a dozen people ever found? Anyway, please sign up if you feel like you'll want to talk about Scott Pilgrim and other crap with the online types.

3) Press Kit: Some hi-res images and links to past articles, interviews, etc. If any members of the press can think of stuff that isn't available on the new site, please let me know.

4) Media/downloads/reader contributions section: This is still under construction, but I am on the lookout for Stuff, so let me know if you see any.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the links the other day, it was much appreciated. If any early-birds find any missing files, dead links, bugs, etc, please let me know ASAP.

Can you guys help me out with something?

I would like to compile a list of reviews of Scott Pilgrim 1, 2, and 3, from whichever sources - preferably the ones that are more-or-less "official" and not like a kid posting his thoughts on his livejournal or something.

Format like this:

URL
Article title (if applicable)
Author's name
Source (publication or website)
Pull quote (pick the most representative line or two from the review - you know, like they do at metacritic and such)

This is for the forthcoming new Scott Pilgrim website.

If you folks reading the livejournal have some free time, please start compiling these links in the comments. Thanks ever so much. I'll contribute when I have some time and a solid internet connection.

COMIC FOUNDRY (a new magazine) interviewed me for their first issue, and this is one of the Vol 4 clips I gave them for the layout. From page... 24... or something like that? It's from the first chapter in the book. Chapter 19.

Here are some (more) computer wallpapers to promote Scott Pilgrim Vol 4.

They are also available on scottpilgrim.com, which has been very gently updated in anticipation of a true overhaul for the release of Vol 4. (The website hasn't been redesigned since book 2 came out!) Everyone: if there is anything you think a scottpilgrim.com site absolutely needs to have, now's your chance to tell me.

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"Honest Ed" died this morning at a sprightly 92 years of age. Let's all have a Scott Pilgrim-esque moment of confused silence in his honour.

EDIT TO ADD: I have a little remembrance thing on the National Post blog, thanks to Steve Murray, newsman extraordinaire.

--

Here's some artwork I posted on my flickr yesterday...

One day, all the work I've been doing will add up to a little green book, and hopefully the grand total of all the hours of enjoyment people get out of the book will add up to more than all the hours of toil I've spent creating it.

This will probably be my last post for a while, because I have some traveling lined up. (I mean, theoretically I'm still on hiatus, but...)

The weather here has been really lousy, and we can't wait to go someplace else. I hope to see some of you in New York this weekend, and I also hope to both eat and shop until I drop.

There is now a line of "Mr. Men" t-shirts and merchandise. Has anyone seen these? Like, at the mall? I bought a "Mr. Noisy" shirt. It actually has a Mr. Men tag and everything, they're a branded set, it's not a cheap knockoff, so that's nice. It's weird to have my childhood co-opted by someone other than me, but at least it's a cute shirt.

Here's an ad for the new book.

This should be appearing in PREVIEWS (the comic retail catalogue) this week, as an advance solicit for September.

I also made a desktop wallpaper version for your computer (click on it):