As the wildly popular comic book series Scott Pilgrim celebrates its 20th anniversary, Oni Press has teamed up with series creator Bryan Lee O’Malley and Eisner Award-winning artist Patrick Crotty to produce a new box set of the series. Read The Beat’s review here. The Beat asked O’Malley a few questions, which you can read below:
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Jared Bird: Thanks so much for your time today. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Scott Pilgrim series, Oni Press is releasing a new box set that contains the entire series in hardcover format and comes with a ton of great extras. What was it like celebrating 20 years of Scott Pilgrim?
Bryan Lee O’Malley: It’s been a lot harder than I thought it would be. I didn’t really think of it that way, but I’ve been working on it all year, personally. It’s been really rewarding. I knew there was something I needed to do, so after I finished production on the show (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off!) last November, I started working on it, and I’ve been working on the 20th anniversary stuff ever since. For the first few months, I was mainly working on the box set, which had some work that had to be done pretty early on in order to get it produced in time. There were a lot of little tasks that had to come together, but it’s been a lot of fun.
Bird: Did you think Scott Pilgrim would still be popular 20 years later?
O’Malley: No, of course not! I never expected it to become so popular. I thought it would just be in a small circle, but it just got bigger and bigger. I’m especially amazed by Edgar Wright’s film (Scott Pilgrim vs. the Evil Ex-Boyfriends) and how it spread all over the world. It spread everywhere, like a virus raging out of control.
Bard: Some kind of Lovecraftian monstrosity, ever expanding.
O’Malley: To be honest with you, yes! I had nightmares like that once.
BIRD: What’s your favorite thing to include in a box set?
O’Malley: It was a lot of fun to put together. Putting together volume 7, which is full of add-ons from the other books and other extras, was really fun. Bringing it all together into one piece was a lot more fun than I expected. I also love the silly little cards that explain how to read the book. That was mostly Patrick Crotty’s idea, he designed the box set and he did a fantastic job.
Let’s take a look inside the 20th anniversary box set.
Bird: Can you tell us a bit about your ongoing relationship with Oni Press and what it has been like as a publisher over the last 20 years or so?
O’Malley: It’s funny, they really changed a few years ago. They had quotes all over the place from companies that I wasn’t really familiar with. Basically, it’s like a whole new publisher now. I’m still getting my footing, but so far so good. I don’t think there are any complaints. We still work together.
Bird: With the recent programming, a lot of new fans are watching the series for the first time. What do you want them to take away from it?
O’Malley: I think there’s a tendency now to explain everything as simply as possible. One sentence, one tweet. A work like Scott Pilgrim cannot be simplified in some sense. If you read it and really understand its intricacies and complexities, you’ll get more out of it than if you read a synopsis. It will hopefully be more than the sum of its parts.
Bird: That’s a great summary. When I first read Scott Pilgrim, I had seen the movie, but I was drawn to the comic because it had more of a backstory for the characters and what they were doing while Scott was out on his adventures. And the subplot about Scott’s ex-girlfriend. I loved how it was so impactful and so fleshed out.
O’Malley: That’s great. What I love about doing this is exploring large networks of people and what drives them.
Bird: If you were to recommend another film to Scott Pilgrim fans, what would you choose?
O’Malley: The natural choice would be Seconds. That’s the book I wrote right after I finished Scott Pilgrim, which was 10 years ago now. Age changes a lot. I also did another comic called Snotgirl, which is a completely different piece I did in collaboration with artist Leslie Han. Not much else. I’m working on my next one, which will eventually be the one I recommend Scott Pilgrim fans to read.
Artwork for Bryan Lee O’Malley’s “Seconds”
Bird: That’s great to hear! What do you think keeps people coming back to Scott Pilgrim after all this time?
O’Malley: I don’t know. It’s kind of hard. It’s a generational thing at this point, but it’s interesting. We hear a lot from younger fans now, which of course we never expected years ago. We never expected people who weren’t even born yet to love Scott Pilgrim, but they do. It’s incredible. As for it coming back, I hope it’s more than just nostalgia. Hopefully it becomes a part of people’s lives in some way. We know it’s very important to people. That’s why we wanted to honor that with the 20th anniversary edition.
Bird: Well, all worries aside, I was alive when the series started.
O’Malley: Haha! You do look suspiciously young.
Bird: If you could give advice to yourself when you first started Lost At Sea, what would you say?
O’Malley: It’s the same thing I was saying when I was doing Seconds, which is, don’t repeat your mistakes. If I told my younger self anything, it would disrupt the flow of time! I think not knowing was a big power. I was able to keep my head down and keep going. If I knew this was going to be popular, I probably never would have done it because I was scared of the reaction. I’ve seen all kinds of reactions. People are going to take it any way they want. It was never my intention. Like I said, if it was just a small group of my friends that thought it was funny or whatever, that would have been enough. If I had to tell my younger self anything, it would be just buckle up and get on wherever you are.
Bird: Have a nice day.
Cover of the Scott Pilgrim print collection produced to celebrate the 20th anniversary.
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