An interview with
Bryan Lee O'Malley
Conducted by Neil 'neil' Shyminsky
September 16, 2004

From the preview on the Oni Press website, one might think that the lead character of Bryan Lee O'Malley's new graphic novel - Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life - suffers from a multiple-personality disorder. Lover, rock star, slacker, fighter...hero? Scott Pilgrim claims to be all of these things - and on top of it, he's "awesome".

But should it appeal to the Marvel and DC super-hero readership that posts at Comicboards? Read on as I prod Bryan Lee O'Malley into expounding opinions on his art, his music, and his contributions to a certain fast food giant (among other things, of course).

Neil Shyminsky: Who is Scott Pilgrim, and why do we want to read about his Precious Little Life?

Bryan Lee O'Malley: Scott Pilgrim is a regular 23-year-old guy living in the big city, and he grew up on the same movies, comics and video games as all of you. The difference between you and him is that he's a character in a comic book where anything can happen. As for WHY you should read it, check out some of the reviews at www.scottpilgrim.com, many of which are written by people who never expected to like it. ComiX-Fans, for example.

NS: The storytelling and art in 'Precious Little Life', as well as that of your previous work, is obviously influenced by Japanese manga. What attracts you to this style instead of, say, a more traditionally American form?

BLO: Well, neither of us are American, for starters, Neil. And obviously I just happened to go through a retarded Japanese anime & manga fanboy phase in high school. I think what drew me to manga over "American" comics is that they were about kids and students and young people, like me, whereas American comics were about guys with huge muscles, and hot girls. I liked the hot girls, but I could relate better to the kids in the Japanese shit, even if they were Japanese. I'm also half-Korean, if that means anything, which maybe it does. Anyway, the older I get, the less I can relate to any of the characters in any of the comics from any country, so I have to write my own characters who have something to do with my own life.

NS: Scott makes a hilarious X-Men reference (which I admit to having noticed well before Scott explained it!) in 'Precious Little Life', and Scott's band – Sex Bob-omb! – appears to have been named after a Super Mario character. Are you some sort of pop-culture junkie, or are we both just huge geeks?

BLO: I'm not a pop culture junkie. I'm not one of those people who can quote the Simpsons for hours on end, and I don't remember what happened in what episode of Star Trek: TNG. I don't even have cable. HOWEVER, I grew up with comics, and video games, and cable TV. The thing is, everyone my age seems to be as big a geek as me, which was at first really surprising, but now it's just kind of comforting. Everyone played Super Mario 2 when they were kids, at their friend's house or on their brother's Nintendo or whatever. Everyone read some comic books in grade 5. Okay, some of you spend all your time on comics message boards, and some of you read comics by Chuck Austen, but a lot of people who just grew up that way still have it in their heads, and that's what the references in Scott Pilgrim are all about.

NS: Speaking of the X-Men, are you a fan, a reader – or for that matter, and more generally, what comix are you reading right now?

BLO: Let's be honest here. I have a collection roughly from Uncanny #220 to #280, and then I have pretty much every Joe Madureira issue ever, and the Seagle/Bachalo stuff, and that's about it. I was into Marc Silvestri and Jim Lee in middle school, Joe Mad in high school (while I was also into anime), and Bachalo during & after that (Generation X!). Jubilee was one of my favourite characters. I'm a nerd of that specific flavour that they made the Jubilee limited series for, but I'm not nerdy enough to have even gone to a comic store to check it out. I read some of ASTONISHING and it wasn't that great. X2, the movie, was the best movie EVER, though? I'm that kind of nerd.

I'm not reading any comics right now. I vaguely pay attention to POWERS, and I'm following the trades on 100 Bullets and maybe Human Target and stuff. I kind of want to read the new BOOKS OF MAGICK because I like Dean Ormston's art. I'm not reading anything superheroey, really.

NS: What can we expect in the next volume of Scott Pilgrim?

BLO: More fights, more love, more bad jokes... uhh... I don't know? Most people reading this won't have read the first one yet. MORE OF THE SAME, BUT BETTER!!!!?

NS: Where did the inspiration to create Scott and his world come from?

BLO: It came from the world. Living in the city, having friends who are just like that, and having real actual normal relationships. It's about being a person in your 20s in this day and age, but it seems like a wide range of people are able to enjoy it. In short, everyone should read it.

NS: How did you get into comix in the first place? And how did your relationship with Oni start?

BLO: How did I get into ... how did I become a 'professional'? Umm... I was introduced to James Lucas Jones at Oni, at some convention, a few years ago, and then a few months later I was languishing at my parents' house and he called me up and asked if I could do an inking fill-in on QUEEN & COUNTRY #5. So, I did. And after that, they asked if I wanted to draw HOPELESS SAVAGES: GROUND ZERO, and they asked me to pitch a book, which was LOST AT SEA, and I also ended up lettering a BLUE MONDAY book for Chynna Clugston and then I think I've lettered every book she's done since then. And what they really wanted from me was a big appealing series, so SCOTT PILGRIM was the natural next step.

NS: Tell us a bit about your previous work, both on paper and online.

BLO: Other than the Oni stuff I just mentioned, I've done some work for Udon studios here in Toronto. I ended up drawing this Spider-Man Doctors baby book, a "board book", which is nice, I have two copies of that. And I inked like two issues of "CITIZEN V" for Marvel, which was a Thunderbolts spinoff. I don't even think I was credited for that. It was another fill-in job. I think I had a fever the whole time. The first pro work I did was a few years ago, when I was lettering and doing some graphic design on this book LAST SHOT, for Image, which some friends of mine created. And I also collaborated on these X-MEN: EVOLUTION mini-comics on CDROM, for Burger King. They came with toys. I don't know if anyone remembers those. I worked on Quicksilver. He fought Juggernaut at the arcade, or something.

I was doing a lot of crap on the Internet before that, most of which is still archived on my website, www.radiomaru.com. I don't really want to talk about it.

NS: Do you have any advice for aspiring artists that are trying to get their own work published?

BLO: No? Uhh... don't draw bad superhero comics? Forget about getting published? The comics industry is dying? Something like that?

NS: You're a musician as well as a writer and illustrator – do you see your music and comix intersecting or influencing one another?

BLO: Yeah, I think my music and comics have converged a bit. Well, yeah. I mean, they're all the expressions of myself or whatever. I was a bit more tortured a few years ago, so both the music and the comics reflected that, but my new music is a bit more lighthearted, like SCOTT PILGRIM, but with a kind of emotional gravity, or whatever.

NS: Rock star or comics icon – in an ideal future, which one (and only one!) would it be?

BLO: Honestly, I find the whole playing shows and interacting with people thing kind of tiresome. I'm sure I'm more inclined to be a "comics icon", which really just means I can sit alone in my house for 350 days out of the year, and go to conventions for the other 15, and be recognized by a handful of people, but only at the conventions.

NS: Do you have any aspirations for the mainstream comix world – a dream job on a Marvel or DC book?

BLO: No. If I was 14, I would still want to draw Uncanny X-Men. I think I had a relapse of that when I was 19 or something, but it was because I had a girlfriend and I was really regressing to my pre-girl nerdhood. I really badly wanted to read X-Men comics and play Final Fantasy on SNES. I'd take a writing job on certain beloved franchises, if that ever happened, but I'm clearly unsuited to drawing the stuff. So yeah, I'd revive certain X-characters from my nerdy youth, but I think most of that has been done to death. I'd only be doing it for the money.

NS: A little more realistically, now, where do you see yourself in five/ten years time?

BLO: I don't know. I hate that question. Five years ago, I had literally no idea that I would be doing this kind of stuff now. As I get older, I'm a little more settled. I see myself in a quiet house, with my wife and cats, and probably no kids yet, still doing basically the same thing, but hopefully with a bit more money. I don't know. I just got a job in a restaurant. Comics are #$%&, kids.

Check out the official Scott Pilgrim website. Volume 1, Precious Little Life, should be available to order here, there, and everywhere. Volume 2 follows next February.