Word and Image: Scott Pilgrim Series

After being captivated by the movie “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”, I later read the comic it was based on and to say the least I was interested. The communication between words and picture really made the story so smooth and engaging. In the fourth comic of the series, Bryan Lee O’Malley describes his way of making a comic which by first writing a script and then create thumbnail sketches of what the comic could look like. Overall the words are dependent on each other as being parts that make a greater whole. The uniqueness of this comic series versus other is its emphasis on narrative. The Scott Pilgrim comic relies on a more simplified art style than a realistic superhero look. O’Malley in an interview said that it was to look like the classic cartoony style of video games such as “Super Mario” or “Sonic the Hedgehog”. The simplified style of the comic leaves room for words to be emphasized and make a dialog based narrative. Even though many of the characters look the same the dialog gives enough personality to differentiate every character. Also the uses of pixelated fonts help attract his audience of hardcore gamers and pop culturist. O’Malley just saturates the pages with Easter eggs and game jargon that it brings viewers back to when they enjoyed those allusions. Overall I highly recommend the books over the movie because of the arcade game feel you don’t feel as much as in the theater.