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Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee OMalley
By Daniel Robert Epstein
Feb 7, 2007
Even though Bryan Lee O’Malley has been creating the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels for three years, I really only became aware of the book last year when a SuicideGirl emailed me how excited she was that Edgar Wright was going to adapt it. I had interviewed Wright for the US release of Shaun of the Dead and I was a big fan. I figured it was time to get in touch with O’Malley’s publisher and check out this book. I found Scott Pilgrim to be a fun and unique concept. The series is about a young Canadian named Scott Pilgrim who is in a rock band. Pilgrim falls in love with a young woman named Ramona Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to date her. O’Malley has planned Scott Pilgrim to be a six book series and currently there are three out.
Check out the official website for Scott Pilgrim
Daniel Robert Epstein: What’s going on?
Bryan Lee O’Malley: You know it’s been a whirlwind every day.
DRE:
How come?
BLO:
A lot of phone calls but not really for me, it’s mainly for my wife.
DRE:
[laughs] Are you working on Scott Pilgrim today?
BLO:
Yeah, I just finished up some research work so I’m going back to the book.
DRE:
Scott Pilgrim has a really strong female readership.
BLO:
It seems that way.
DRE:
What do you think accounts for that?
BLO:
I just try to characterize characters well and not make the girls objects like they seem to be in most comics.
DRE:
Was Scott Pilgrim always going to be such an ambitious project?
BLO:
Yeah, pretty much. At the very beginning it was only going to be one book but as I started writing the outline, stuff got longer. So I pretty much planned it for six.
DRE:
Before Scott Pilgrim, you had done a lot of work for Oni Press.
BLO:
Yeah, I did a book called Lost at Sea, which was also kind of girlie. I guess I’m a girlie man. But Lost at Sea is an emotional precursor to Scott Pilgrim about some teenagers on a road trip.
DRE:
I suppose videogames were the big inspiration for Scott Pilgrim.
BLO:
Yeah, it has all my interests. Manga, videogames, indie rock. Basically all my interests from high school are jammed into this one concept. It’s named after a song by my favorite band, Plum Tree. I knew them from high school. They’re from Halifax. They broke up about six years ago but they were a big influence on me when I was younger.
DRE:
What made you want to do something so ambitious?
BLO:
I wanted to try and commit to something big. When I was younger and started creating comics, I could never break the 20 page mark. I was really bad about that so I finally did Lost at Sea which was about 160 pages. When I finished that I was like, “Alright, I’m going to try and do something major.” I don’t want it to be the only thing I ever do, because I’ve got all this stuff planned after it. But I wanted to do something pretty hefty just to see if I can do it.
DRE:
You’re 27 years old and it is interesting that you’re putting to bed all the stuff you loved in high school.
BLO:
Yeah, I started it when I was 24 and at the time I was trying to become less of a nerd.
DRE:
[laughs] So you decided to do a huge comic.
BLO:
Well yeah [laughs]. I guess I didn’t go about it in the best possible way but I was trying to empty all this crap out of my mind like all the Nintendo, comics, superheroes and Manga.
DRE:
Are you surprised at the amount of attention the book has gotten even before the movie announcement?
BLO:
Yeah, it’s changed my life. Everything has really exploded. It didn’t happen all right away but it’s been pretty steady ever since the first book came out. The first couple months there was just dead silence and then after that it’s been snowballing.
DRE:
Have you always drawn in the Manga style?
BLO:
Well I was going toward the style. I’m just not the greatest drawer, but I’ve been trying to improve. The drawing just evolved over a period of time. For the book format it was actually one of my friends, who is a comic book retailer, that suggested this format because it was around the time when the big Manga publishers were starting to break the industry in half. So I think that was a good choice. We’re not really in all the major bookstores yet but we’re getting there.
DRE:
So that’s not the style you’ve always drawn in.
BLO:
No, but I used to draw even more like it. I wanted to be Japanese when I was younger. But now it’s sort of a hybrid.
DRE:
I’m not one for Manga. I’ve read many, I’ve seen anime and I just don’t get it. Are you finding that people who don’t enjoy Manga or anime are into the book?
BLO:
Yeah, I think I have readers from all over the spectrum. Some are people who don’t read comic books at all which is the most gratifying. I do have Manga readers too. I went to an anime convention last summer and actually had people come up to me, which was surprising. It was unusual and I wasn’t sure what to expect anyway.
DRE:
Do you still play videogames?
BLO:
I do. For a while I didn’t but lately I’ve been playing Bully for PS2.
DRE:
Is it any good?
BLO:
Yeah, I’m enjoying it. I never really played Grand Theft Auto but this one’s really fun.
DRE:
I don’t play a ton of videogames. The new ones are too hard.
BLO:
I find them to be too time consuming. You have to block off weeks or months for them. I got the new Final Fantasy because I haven’t played one of those in a while. But I am nowhere near the end so I just get bored with it after a while.
DRE:
Also most games are all the same stuff. You go through a level, then you fight the boss and there are multiple variations on that theme.
BLO:
Yeah. I got turned off on videogames in the late 90’s with the Playstation era and all the3D. I was more into all the Nintendo 2D stuff.
DRE:
Has anyone talked to you about doing a Scott Pilgrim videogame?
BLO:
Nothing official.
DRE:
When did you get married?
BLO:
I got married right around the time I was starting to do the first book. So it was like I wanted to commit to doing the series right at the time I was committing to a relationship.
DRE:
[laughs] Were you just into 20 page books and short relationships at the time?
BLO:
I guess I was just at the point of my life where I just wanted to solidify stuff. I just lucked out. I’m still married and I’ve been making money from my book. It has only been this past year that I’ve started making decent money really but that’s to be expected. When you start out in the indie comic world you shouldn’t really plan to make money.
DRE:
Is Scott Pilgrim autobiographical in any way?
BLO:
Yeah, when I was 22 years old I was living in Toronto and I had a gay roommate. So the characters in the book were all taken from my life, just the details and stuff are different.
DRE:
How’d you hook up with Oni Press in the first place?
BLO:
I was introduced to one of their editors at a convention in Chicago in 2000 or 2001. I became friends with him and I started doing some work for them. So it’s been a pretty organic evolution working with them.
DRE:
Do you know the status of the movie?
BLO:
I think we’ll probably hear something about it when Hot Fuzz is released in England next month. They wrote a draft of the screenplay and we’re waiting to see what happens after Hot Fuzz. But it sounds like [director Edgar Wright] would like to make it this year. So that would be good.
DRE:
Did you read the screenplay?
BLO:
I read the draft. It’s good. I like it. It’s got a lot of stuff verbatim from the book so I’m flattered.
DRE:
Did Edgar write it by himself or did he have a co-writer?
BLO:
It was Edgar and Michael Bacall who hasn’t really done anything major. He did write a movie called Manic with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
DRE:
I like that movie actually.
BLO:
You’ve actually seen it.
DRE:
I’ve seen it and I interviewed Joseph for it.
BLO:
Cool. Michael Bacall is in that movie too.
DRE:
Do you want to be involved with the movie?
BLO:
I would love to check out the set because I’ve never really been on a set or anything but I don’t want to be calling the shots or anything. I’m happy doing comics. I don’t really want to jump to movies.
DRE:
Are they doing the whole series in one movie?
BLO:
Yeah, it’s going to be one movie that condenses the story.
DRE:
Did you give Edgar your outlines for what the ending will be?
BLO:
Yeah I wrote a lot of outlines when we first started talking about it.
DRE:
Are you super excited?
BLO:
[laughs] Well I got paid the option renewal yesterday so that’s great. It’s always exciting to get money. At this point I’m really more excited about seeing if it happens than if I get the money.
DRE:
Did you meet Edgar in person yet?
BLO:
Yeah, a few times. Me, Edgar and Michael Bacall went up to Toronto in October 2005 and just walked around. I showed them the locations and we chatted about it.
DRE:
Do you have other stuff that you work on like commercial illustration?
BLO:
I was just doing some illustration this week but it was a favor so I don’t think I’m getting paid for it. Doing books takes up so much of your life that I don’t have time to do other books or anything else on the side.
DRE:
Have you always drawn?
BLO:
Yeah, pretty much. It’s the one thing I never gave up on.
DRE:
When did you first discover comics?
BLO:
Probably when I was in grade school. I think I started reading Transformers because we didn’t have cable so I couldn’t watch the Transformers cartoon. I started buying the comics instead. That’s where I started. Then I got on the internet about ten years ago and started doing online comics before.
DRE:
What do you know about SuicideGirls?
BLO:
They’re good looking [laughs]. My wife was saying that she thought the interview should be like some SuicideGirls coming over and interviewing me in person while they take off their clothes.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Even though Bryan Lee O’Malley has been creating the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels for three years, I really only became aware of the book last year when a SuicideGirl emailed me how excited she was that Edgar Wright was going to adapt it. I had interviewed Wright for the US release of Shaun of the Dead and I was a big fan. I figured it was time to get in touch with O’Malley’s publisher and check out this book. I found Scott Pilgrim to be a fun and unique concept. The series is about a young Canadian named Scott Pilgrim who is in a rock band. Pilgrim falls in love with a young woman named Ramona Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to date her. O’Malley has planned Scott Pilgrim to be a six book series and currently there are three out.
Check out the official website for Scott Pilgrim
Daniel Robert Epstein: What’s going on?
Bryan Lee O’Malley: You know it’s been a whirlwind every day.
DRE:
How come?
BLO:
A lot of phone calls but not really for me, it’s mainly for my wife.
DRE:
[laughs] Are you working on Scott Pilgrim today?
BLO:
Yeah, I just finished up some research work so I’m going back to the book.
DRE:
Scott Pilgrim has a really strong female readership.
BLO:
It seems that way.
DRE:
What do you think accounts for that?
BLO:
I just try to characterize characters well and not make the girls objects like they seem to be in most comics.
DRE:
Was Scott Pilgrim always going to be such an ambitious project?
BLO:
Yeah, pretty much. At the very beginning it was only going to be one book but as I started writing the outline, stuff got longer. So I pretty much planned it for six.
DRE:
Before Scott Pilgrim, you had done a lot of work for Oni Press.
BLO:
Yeah, I did a book called Lost at Sea, which was also kind of girlie. I guess I’m a girlie man. But Lost at Sea is an emotional precursor to Scott Pilgrim about some teenagers on a road trip.
DRE:
I suppose videogames were the big inspiration for Scott Pilgrim.
BLO:
Yeah, it has all my interests. Manga, videogames, indie rock. Basically all my interests from high school are jammed into this one concept. It’s named after a song by my favorite band, Plum Tree. I knew them from high school. They’re from Halifax. They broke up about six years ago but they were a big influence on me when I was younger.
DRE:
What made you want to do something so ambitious?
BLO:
I wanted to try and commit to something big. When I was younger and started creating comics, I could never break the 20 page mark. I was really bad about that so I finally did Lost at Sea which was about 160 pages. When I finished that I was like, “Alright, I’m going to try and do something major.” I don’t want it to be the only thing I ever do, because I’ve got all this stuff planned after it. But I wanted to do something pretty hefty just to see if I can do it.
DRE:
You’re 27 years old and it is interesting that you’re putting to bed all the stuff you loved in high school.
BLO:
Yeah, I started it when I was 24 and at the time I was trying to become less of a nerd.
DRE:
[laughs] So you decided to do a huge comic.
BLO:
Well yeah [laughs]. I guess I didn’t go about it in the best possible way but I was trying to empty all this crap out of my mind like all the Nintendo, comics, superheroes and Manga.
DRE:
Are you surprised at the amount of attention the book has gotten even before the movie announcement?
BLO:
Yeah, it’s changed my life. Everything has really exploded. It didn’t happen all right away but it’s been pretty steady ever since the first book came out. The first couple months there was just dead silence and then after that it’s been snowballing.
DRE:
Have you always drawn in the Manga style?
BLO:
Well I was going toward the style. I’m just not the greatest drawer, but I’ve been trying to improve. The drawing just evolved over a period of time. For the book format it was actually one of my friends, who is a comic book retailer, that suggested this format because it was around the time when the big Manga publishers were starting to break the industry in half. So I think that was a good choice. We’re not really in all the major bookstores yet but we’re getting there.
DRE:
So that’s not the style you’ve always drawn in.
BLO:
No, but I used to draw even more like it. I wanted to be Japanese when I was younger. But now it’s sort of a hybrid.
DRE:
I’m not one for Manga. I’ve read many, I’ve seen anime and I just don’t get it. Are you finding that people who don’t enjoy Manga or anime are into the book?
BLO:
Yeah, I think I have readers from all over the spectrum. Some are people who don’t read comic books at all which is the most gratifying. I do have Manga readers too. I went to an anime convention last summer and actually had people come up to me, which was surprising. It was unusual and I wasn’t sure what to expect anyway.
DRE:
Do you still play videogames?
BLO:
I do. For a while I didn’t but lately I’ve been playing Bully for PS2.
DRE:
Is it any good?
BLO:
Yeah, I’m enjoying it. I never really played Grand Theft Auto but this one’s really fun.
DRE:
I don’t play a ton of videogames. The new ones are too hard.
BLO:
I find them to be too time consuming. You have to block off weeks or months for them. I got the new Final Fantasy because I haven’t played one of those in a while. But I am nowhere near the end so I just get bored with it after a while.
DRE:
Also most games are all the same stuff. You go through a level, then you fight the boss and there are multiple variations on that theme.
BLO:
Yeah. I got turned off on videogames in the late 90’s with the Playstation era and all the3D. I was more into all the Nintendo 2D stuff.
DRE:
Has anyone talked to you about doing a Scott Pilgrim videogame?
BLO:
Nothing official.
DRE:
When did you get married?
BLO:
I got married right around the time I was starting to do the first book. So it was like I wanted to commit to doing the series right at the time I was committing to a relationship.
DRE:
[laughs] Were you just into 20 page books and short relationships at the time?
BLO:
I guess I was just at the point of my life where I just wanted to solidify stuff. I just lucked out. I’m still married and I’ve been making money from my book. It has only been this past year that I’ve started making decent money really but that’s to be expected. When you start out in the indie comic world you shouldn’t really plan to make money.
DRE:
Is Scott Pilgrim autobiographical in any way?
BLO:
Yeah, when I was 22 years old I was living in Toronto and I had a gay roommate. So the characters in the book were all taken from my life, just the details and stuff are different.
DRE:
How’d you hook up with Oni Press in the first place?
BLO:
I was introduced to one of their editors at a convention in Chicago in 2000 or 2001. I became friends with him and I started doing some work for them. So it’s been a pretty organic evolution working with them.
DRE:
Do you know the status of the movie?
BLO:
I think we’ll probably hear something about it when Hot Fuzz is released in England next month. They wrote a draft of the screenplay and we’re waiting to see what happens after Hot Fuzz. But it sounds like [director Edgar Wright] would like to make it this year. So that would be good.
DRE:
Did you read the screenplay?
BLO:
I read the draft. It’s good. I like it. It’s got a lot of stuff verbatim from the book so I’m flattered.
DRE:
Did Edgar write it by himself or did he have a co-writer?
BLO:
It was Edgar and Michael Bacall who hasn’t really done anything major. He did write a movie called Manic with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
DRE:
I like that movie actually.
BLO:
You’ve actually seen it.
DRE:
I’ve seen it and I interviewed Joseph for it.
BLO:
Cool. Michael Bacall is in that movie too.
DRE:
Do you want to be involved with the movie?
BLO:
I would love to check out the set because I’ve never really been on a set or anything but I don’t want to be calling the shots or anything. I’m happy doing comics. I don’t really want to jump to movies.
DRE:
Are they doing the whole series in one movie?
BLO:
Yeah, it’s going to be one movie that condenses the story.
DRE:
Did you give Edgar your outlines for what the ending will be?
BLO:
Yeah I wrote a lot of outlines when we first started talking about it.
DRE:
Are you super excited?
BLO:
[laughs] Well I got paid the option renewal yesterday so that’s great. It’s always exciting to get money. At this point I’m really more excited about seeing if it happens than if I get the money.
DRE:
Did you meet Edgar in person yet?
BLO:
Yeah, a few times. Me, Edgar and Michael Bacall went up to Toronto in October 2005 and just walked around. I showed them the locations and we chatted about it.
DRE:
Do you have other stuff that you work on like commercial illustration?
BLO:
I was just doing some illustration this week but it was a favor so I don’t think I’m getting paid for it. Doing books takes up so much of your life that I don’t have time to do other books or anything else on the side.
DRE:
Have you always drawn?
BLO:
Yeah, pretty much. It’s the one thing I never gave up on.
DRE:
When did you first discover comics?
BLO:
Probably when I was in grade school. I think I started reading Transformers because we didn’t have cable so I couldn’t watch the Transformers cartoon. I started buying the comics instead. That’s where I started. Then I got on the internet about ten years ago and started doing online comics before.
DRE:
What do you know about SuicideGirls?
BLO:
They’re good looking [laughs]. My wife was saying that she thought the interview should be like some SuicideGirls coming over and interviewing me in person while they take off their clothes.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
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