The Temptation of Scott Pilgrim by the Babe Lisa Miller, Part One

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

It wasn't always just Ramona Flowers messing with Scott Pilgrim's poor little head;

I recently read all of Scott Pilgrim in one massive chunk, spurred on by the fact that Edgar Wright is directing the upcoming movie, which, based on Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Spaced, and that bizarre love Wright seems to have for the generally bizarre, will undoubtedly rock ultimate. However, one of the subplots I recently learnt was being excised from the movie, for the convinience of fitting the entire plot into about two hours, was that of Scott's friendship with Lisa Miller, a girl who, occasionally, seems to be as doltish as him. A shame, given she proved to be one of my favourite characters in the book, beside Scott himself, and Kim Pine (but then, EVERYONE loves Kim Pine).




One of the funniest things about this is how it's recalled later on, when Scott's moved to Toronto, and he meets Wallace Wells, who he treats in exactly the same fashion as Lisa.



Inbetween these pages, Scott has met Kim Pine, who will later follow him to Toronto and establish the status quo we come to know in 'Precious Little Life', the first SP book.



Naturally, Kim Pine is the drummer Lisa and Scott want to recruit for 'Sonic and Knuckles', the band they're starting up to gain recognition for Lunchapalooza, which is exactly what it sounds like. Sonic and Knuckles is, by and large, a relatively ordinary name for a band in the SP universe, when there's the Clash at Demonhead and Scott's own band, Sex Bob-Omb. To gain a spot for Lunchapalooza, however, the trio must first give a presentation, which brings us back to Monday;



Scott, naturally, kicks ass in hilarious fashion and promptly wins Kim Pine's heart. When he leaves for Toronto, however, he leaves everything behind. Cue nearly a decade later; Toronto, and a deadly heatwave is in effect. Scott's awesome gay roommate, Wallace Wells, has ordered Scott out of the apartment, lest he die. And so, Scott finds himself at the mall.

Only to meet a familiar face;



Scott's own recollection of their first meeting is too hilarious.




Okay, so, 10 pages from Scott Pilgrim Volume 2, which were taken from Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim website, and therefore allowed to be used, I figured? And 6 pages from Scott Pilgrim Volume Four. Sorry about the poor quality of the text on Volume 4's scans, but I didn't wanna ruin my book!

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Comments

[sandoz_iscariot.insanejournal.com]

Aw, I liked Lisa.

I still wonder how the heck they're gonna fit 6 books into one movie, though...

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

According to O'Malley, they are using a different ending than what he has intended for the books (which removes the need to have O'Malley do a rush job on Volume Six for the 2010 release of the film), which means that things will turn out significantly different.

Have you read Volume 5, yet? I'm wondering, based on that book's ending and the fact that O'Malley seemed to foreshadow another appearance from Lisa for the finale, whether things will turn out the way we assume they will.

[oldmanrain.insanejournal.com]

There putting the six books in one movie???
I mean I trust Edgar wright an all but that's a tough gig.
I'd like a movie per book deal, like an awesome harry potter

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

True, but based on how fast stuff happens in each book, you'd end up with movies of very intermittent lengths. Wright has suggested that Precious Little Life takes up about twenty to thirty minutes of the movie, which sounds about right, given I can read it that fast.

But still, I'd prefer, as with most properties like this, to see it as a TV series, which would allow all of the plots to be featured.

[escherichiacola.insanejournal.com]

Scott meeting Wallace was one of the best moments of the series. And I can't wait for the movie because I'm sure it'll rock (based solely on how awesome Wright is).

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

Same as I say, it made me laugh because it was EXACTLY the same way he treated Lisa, only it seemingly turned out better for Scott and Wallace. The two are a pair I can't help but laugh at, especially when Wallace gets a little too pre-drunk in Volume 4 and has Ramona mocking him over it.

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

...

Is that MONDAY page a reference to River City Ransom?

[balbaroy.insanejournal.com]

Yes, yes, and yes. Also, when Scott defeats one of the Ramona's evil exes, they explode into change.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

See, this is why I'm only laughing at the obviously funny parts and references to games made after about 1990, given that I didn't get some of these references at all. Somehow, though, the page with 'BENVIE TECH HS - THE BENVIE BOYS TURF!!' really got to me.

I also love that - That Scott has the audacity to complain about them exploding into change despite the fact that nearly everything he owns must be bought by Wallace and he generally has no money at all. Especially when Lucas Lee turns into fourteen bucks.

[seanmonster.insanejournal.com]

Or drop items or extra lives!

I love this series so much it frightens me.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

I'll be honest, I went into it a little dubiously (I've bought things before that critics and other people have loved and hated them), and was more than a little uncertain about the first volume, but by the time Kim Pine gets the excellent line of 'Scott Pilgrim. Cue applause' in volume 2, I was hooked.

I just love how quirky it can be, and the little things like Scott always calls Stephen Stills Stephen Stills, whilst everyone else just calls him Stephen, but it was little things like that and the way O'Malley carefully revealed pieces of history that gave his characters so much depth in amongst the zaniness, and it just worked, for me.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

I just checked my copy of Scott Pilgrim 2 and the first chapter of that volume has 32 pages by my count. That fits the 1/3 limit, so you're good.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

Thanks for confirming that.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

You're very welcome! It gave me an excuse to get the book out and read it.

Btw, I keep meaning to ask, what is the art in your icon from?

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

It's part of a Jenny Quantum piece done by Dustin Nguyen, after his work on The Authority: Revolution. Despite my admittedly varied taste in art, I've always had a soft spot for Dustin.

The original piece is here; http://duss005.deviantart.com/art/jenny-quantum-72542065

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

Ah, if it's Dustin Nguyen's stuff no wonder I like it! Thanks for the link.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

I love how he's wearing a shirt with the CBC logo. I am so happy that the Scott Pilgrim movie is being filmed in TO and is having songs by Metric on the soundtrack. XD

[faile_neume.insanejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this! I have been meaning to read some Scott Pilgrim and as always s_d is a great place to start.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

It is a fantastic series, and despite the intermittent release of the volumes, five are availible now and that should easily tide you over until Six and the movie come out.

Still, glad this little taster was to your liking. The second and final part of this series, which I'm working on scanning, probably isn't as funny, but I really like Lisa's character.

[darkknightjrk.insanejournal.com]

I love love LOVE Scott Pilgrim--sad to hear they're taking out the Lisa Miller stuff, but from the sounds of things it's going to be a pretty good adaptation.

[statham1986.insanejournal.com]

Mm, from what I can tell, they're focusing largely on Envy Adams out of all of Scott's exes, which makes the most sense, really, given she's associated with one of the douches Scott has to beat up, and she generally gets the largest page count dedicated to her and Scott's relationship, possibly barring Kim.

But yeah, it should be great. Spaced, SotD and Hot Fuzz proved that Wright can easily do action, romance and comedy and splice them all together masterfully with a heavy topping of bizarre pop culture references and general stupidity, so he should be perfect for this. They've already released images of the faux advertising for The Clash at Demonhead's albums and Lucas Lee's movies, and they're all looking great, so I've a lot of faith in it. It's just unfortunate they're chopping my favourite character from it.