Scott Pilgrim
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Scott Pilgrim |
| Abbreviation(s): | SP |
| Creator: | Bryan Lee O'Malley |
| Date(s): | August 2004 - July 2010 (Initial run) August 2012 - April 2014 (Re-release color run) |
| Medium: | Comics, live-action film, video game |
| Country of Origin: | Canada |
| External Links: | Oni Press collection page |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
This article or section needs expansion. |
This is the article for the comic book series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. For other uses of "Scott Pilgrim," see Scott Pilgrim (disambiguation).
Scott Pilgrim is a six-volume graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. It was later adapted into the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and the videogame Scott Pilgrim VS. The World: The Game. The series follows the titular protagonist, a slacker and part-time musician who lives in Toronto and plays bass guitar in the band Sex Bob-omb. He falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil exes in order to date her.
Canon
Scott Pilgrim (comics)
The original graphic novel series consists of six digest volumes, initially released in black and white between August 2004 and July 2010. These volumes were later re-released in color from 2012 to 2014 and then re-released again in a collected edition in 2019 for the 15th anniversary of the series.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (film)
A film adaptation of the series entitled Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, starring actor Michael Cera in the title role, was released in August 2010.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game
A videogame released at the same time as the movie was developed by Ubisoft for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off
An anime television series developed by Bryan Lee O'Malley and Ben David Grabinski for Netflix. The series is based on the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels written and drawn by O'Malley, with the entire main cast from the 2010 film adaptation. It was released in 2023.
Fandom
While the Scott Pilgrim comics are very popular, being among a very small number of comics to have over one million copies in print and having won several awards,[1] it has relatively few fanworks on AO3.[2] Because of the simple, easily replicated costumes, however, Scott Pilgrim was much more popular to cosplay[3][4][5] and it has an active fandom on Tumblr.[6] It also had a relatively active fan community on Livejournal,[7] although much of that content has been lost to Strikethrough.
The most popular pairing in the fandom is the canonical pairing of Ramona Flowers/Scott Pilgrim,[8] although many of the fanworks on AO3 are actually fusions or AUs based on Scott Pilgrim rather than strictly being Scott Pilgrim fic.
Controversy
Scott Pilgrim has been criticized for being incredibly white, which is particularly notable as Bryan Lee O'Malley is half-Korean. O'Malley himself responded to the criticism in a tumblr post in 2013:
Honestly, when i saw the Scott Pilgrim movie it was kind of appalling to see just how white it was — to not even really see myself represented on the screen… At least in the comic they were just cartoons. You can project yourself into a simple drawing of a person so easily; race seems to matter less (look at the global popularity of manga, where everyone is ostensibly Japanese).And who knows, maybe if my books had had more POCs they would have been whitewashed in the movie, or it wouldn’t have ever been made! Hollywood scares me sometimes…
By the time the movie got made, I was just super-proud that I had created a plum role for someone like Ellen Wong, who otherwise may never have been in a major movie, just by being born Asian and Canadian.
I’ve sometimes joked that Scott Pilgrim is my fantasy of being a cute white indie rock boy (which, as an ostracized mixed-race weirdo, was something I occasionally wished for when I was younger). I guess I whitewashed myself out of my own story, and I got what I deserved.
ANYWAY… IT’S COMPLICATED![9]
Example Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Cosplay
Fanart
Fanfiction
- Scott Pilgrim & the Unsubtle Seduction, Archived version (Scott Pilgrim/Wallace Wells) by afterism
- I'm a garbage truck, Archived version (Ramona Flowers/Scott Pilgrim) by hkafterdark
Archives & Fannish Links
References
- ^ Scott Pilgrim's finest sales chart: 1 million in print. Posted 17 Sept 2010. Accessed 27 September 2019.
- ^ "Scott Pilgrim - All Media Types" tag on AO3. Accessed 27 Sept 2019.
- ^ Scott Pilgrim on Cosplay.com. Accessed 27 Sept 2019.
- ^ Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together on Cosplay.com. Accessed 27 Sept 2019.
- ^ Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on Cosplay.com. Accessed 27 Sept 2019.
- ^ "Scott Pilgrim" tag on Tumblr. Accessed 27 Sept 2019.
- ^ ~SCOTT PILGRIM world~. Accessed 27 Sept 2019.
- ^ "Ramona Flowers/Scott Pilgrim" tag on AO3. Accessed 27 Sept 2019.
- ^ Bryan Lee O'Malley responding to a Tumblr ask. Posted 24 Jun 2013. Accessed 27 Sept 2019.