One of the few books I picked up this weekend at MoCCA (Bonus Rule #7: GONE ARE THE DAYS WHEN YOU CAN JUST TOOL AROUND THE CON AND LET OTHER PEOPLE PIMP YOUR SHIT), was the latest volume of the Scott Pilgrim saga (actually, I like to think of it as a series of video games) Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Shock and surprise, it's fucking outstanding.
One of the very few comics out there that literally defies description (God knows how it was pitched for movie adaptation), it's awfully hard to review. I mean, what, do I talk about what exactly Mal is doing contextually by putting a fight scene that in any other comic would be a dream sequence into the actual narrative of the story? No. I'm not going to do that. Because anyone who's ever read a Scott Pilgrim story knows that it exists in its own world, and in the context of that world, everything makes perfect and beautiful sense. This fluidity, combined with Mal's enviable ability to convey incredible amounts of detail with the fewest and thickest lines imaginable, creates one of the better examples of comics' ability to just straight up transport you into another dimension for about an hour or so.
My favorite example of this, and I'm really loathe to spoil this moment because it's so charming and wonderful and it made me laugh out loud on the train this morning, is that after the hilarious finish to Scott's latest battle against one of Ramona's Evil Ex-Boyfriends (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you haven't read Vol. 1 and, thus, I don't like you) an Item box appears. That tried and true staple of video games, this particular Item Box contains, PERFECTLY, a Mythril Skateboard.
A Mythril fucking Skateboard.
There are singular moments in comics, moments where the very last thing you'd ever expect happens and every time you think about comics from that day forth, part of you will be thinking about that moment. You know the ones I mean. The "And, of course, he never did" page in Jimmy Corrigan. Beak and Angel drawn by Frank Quitely in New X-Men. Other stuff like that. Part of me will always be thinking about that Mythril Skateboard.
That's the thing about the world of Scott Pilgrim. If it hits you, it hits you the way you've always wanted to be hit. With perfect levels of emotion, comedy, and cultural detail. Not to mention just flat out incredible storytelling. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World contains one of the best rendered phone conversations ever, and Mal never gives you a double page spread that doesn't emotionally affect.
And the comedy is just top drawer in this book. Scott and his friends and enemies are the kind of funny that only your friends can be and Mal's dialogue elicits the kind of laughter that is usually only reserved for the inside jokes your friends pull that make you laugh the hardest because you and maybe only two other people know what's up. All of his jokes are like that. Hell, all of the comic is like that. It's like one long inside joke that you can't believe anyone else is getting.
Also, this book features the ultimate insult, free to use in any situation deemed appropriate:
"YOU SUCK, SURPRISING NO-ONE!!!"
That, and the comic on either side of it, is the best I've read all year.
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