Under the shadow of the highly-anticipated Scott Pilgrim movie, comic book guru and moderator Scott McCloud (“Understanding Comics”) offered an disclaimer to the crowd at Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Comic-Con spotlight panel:
“Today we’re mostly going to be talking about comics, but we’re going to have 20 minutes at the end where you’ll be mostly talking about movies,” said McCloud, referring to the expected film-related questions from the audience. “It’s okay. Don’t worry. We know.”
The panel offered a retrospective on O’Malley’s already-great career, behind-the-scenes stories of the Pilgrim-verse, as well as a few teases to the final volume of the series and Edgar Wright’s film adaptation, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.
McCloud started off his slideshow-heavy Q &A by praising “Scott Pilgrim” as his favorite ongoing series, and showing a slide from “Lost At Sea,” O’Malley’s debut book, pointing out the difference between the straightforward composition from the 2003 book and the more kinetic layout of the Scott Pilgrim books. McCloud then posed a tricky hypothetical question to O’Malley: If Scott Pilgrim was the first book you did, and then you wanted to do a story more like “Lost At Sea,” how would it have been different?
“That’s a really hard questions for the first one,” responded O’Malley.
McCloud shot back: “What’s your favorite color?”
O’Malley did say that the composition, especially the “bleeding out of the pages” used in Scott Pilgrim, is conscious move to show that Scott’s world “cannot be contained.” Adding that the technique is being used less as the Canadian slacker slowly get his life in order, and defeats some evil exes in the process.
The artist was then asked if he has any problem with the consistency of the book’s style, which has noticeably evolved from volume to volume, and knowing the entire series will likely be collected in a single volume one day.
“I kind of have to stop thinking about it, otherwise I’ll go crazy,” O’Malley admitted. He later revealed that he wanted volume 5 to look rougher than previous volumes, but was surprised at how tight it came out looking. Ultimately, he feels the book’s art continuity will hold up because it still obviously looks like “the same universe.”
The offbeat humor of the Scott Pilgrim books was also discussed, especially the “silly back-and-forth” moments of dialogue, which O’Malley partially attributed to disliking expositional dialogue. O’Malley also teased that he wrote a “spit-take” into volume 6, and despite having serious his doubts about it working in comics, the comedic bit has nonetheless found its way into the final script.
Speaking of volume 6, he added he was well into writing the final volume and will start drawing it shortly. He offered (sort of) reassuring words for the release of volume 6 in 2010: “Hopefully it’ll come out in May – or June, July, August…”
Toronto, the Canadian setting for the Scott Pilgrim-verse, was the next topic up for discussion, with McCloud asking if cartoonists should rely on references to buold an authentic “sense of place” to their work. [As an aside to how heavily-referenced the series is, McCloud mentioned a family visit to Toronto in 2007 where they stumbled upon a phone booth that was briefly used in one of the books. The phone booth had since been removed from the Toronto street, only to be brought back, at least temporarily, for shooting on the movie.]
O’Malley explained that Toronto was used mostly for logistical reasons.
“I lived there, and I needed a place that I could have complete reference of. And so it was just discovering that if you draw something based on something real, it looks better,” he said, comparing the Scott Pilgrim books to the imagined settings in “Lost At Sea.”
“I’ve never really been that attached to places, like I moved around a lot. I only lived in Toronto for three or four years,” but the artist who grew up a two-hour drive away from the city jokingly explained, “Toronto is like a black hole that sucks everything into it that’s cool…like me!”
Talk then turned to the large ensemble that populates the series.
McCloud started out by asking if any character in the series can be seen as “the moral center” someone who acts like “people aught to behave.” Knives, Kim Pine and Wallace were all suggested as possible contenders for the role, but O’Malley admitted none of the characters were morally superior and that they all have the potential to screw up, as all 20-somethin’s should.
Referring to a gag line from Knives’ friend, McCloud asked if it was intentional that Scott and Young Neil looked alike. O’Malley said it wasn’t on purpose and took blame for any confusion: “I suck. People told me they looked the same,” adding that he also opened to the door to more potential confusion when he “realized in (volume) 4 that I gave everyone the same hairstyle.”
When asked if Scott Pilgrim’s bad decisions make him a less appealing protagonist, O’Malley said his feelings for the character have stayed the same, and he’ll always support Scott because it’s his book.
O’Malley also spilled the origin of the bitchy supporting character, Julie, who was supposed to be a very minor character in volume 1, but was upgraded to more appearances because she made a good foil. O’Malley also confessed that he has no control over the very-opinionated character.
Even minor characters like Michael Comeau and Stacey Pilgrim (Scott’s sister, based on Bryan’s real-life sister) were also addressed, and the artist clarified that the characters have purposely been put in the background because he doesn’t want to be accused of not being creative, and he also didn’t want to offend the real people: “I don’t want them to be like, you don’t know my life!” O’Malley explained to laughs from the audience.
McCloud wondered if O’Malley was creating a new genre with the Scott Pilgrim books, and, what the hypothetical genre would be called. Not totally comfortable with any label, O’Malley explained that he’s simply doing “manga set in Toronto — with a video game thing.” Whether or not the Scott Pilgrim books could be seen as a superhero book was also up for debate. ”It could go either way. Depending on how the person phrased it,” said O’Malley, adding, “if I ever do a super-hero
book — which I won’t — it’ll be just like this. Batgirl drinking a coffee.”
The self-taught artist said his earliest inspirations as a teenager were manga – like Ranma ½ and Sailor Moon, as well as indie artist Paul Pope.
When questions opened to the audience, O’Malley talked a bit about his experiences being on set for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: “It’s fun, but extremely boring… Especially when it’s Edgar Wright, who can do 250 shots of a sword fight that are all a second long… I just want [the movie] done, so I can see it.” The movie could be completed as earlier as April, posing a potentially interesting (but not likely) scenario where the film comes out before the final volume of the comic.
The process of working with Edgar Wright on the movie was addressed, with O’Malley explaining that at the time when they were developing the screenplay, he hadn’t plotted out the entire comic. He made a road-map of sorts for the evil boyfriends, and where the series was headed. He also said the movie will be primarily adapted from the first four books, with little bits of volume 5 and 6.
As far as the comic ending is concerned, O’Malley now feels more pressure to have a cooler fight between Scott and Gideon in the final book, saying he’s “sort of shamed, seeing what they’re doing on the movie.”
“The fights are going to be way cooler in the movie then I would care to do in the comic. I’m not a team of martial arts experts.”
Speaking of the final showdown between Scott and Gideon, Edgar Wright’s been putting together videos from set and the most recent one is all about the aforementioned brawl:
Blog 11 – Battle Scars – Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World from Scott Pilgrim The Movie on Vimeo.