Name	Indie rock
Bgcolor	crimson
Color	White
Stylistic origins	Alternative rock, punk rock, post-punk, hardcore punk, New Wave
Cultural origins	Early 1980s, United Kingdom, United States and Canada
Instruments	Guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, vocals
Popularity	Moderate to High in North America and the United Kingdom since the late 2000s
Subgenres	Garage punk, riot grrrl, indie pop, emo, garage rock/post-punk revival, noise pop, dance-punk, New Weird America, Baroque pop, lo-fi, sadcore, C86, math rock
Fusiongenres	Grindie - indie pop - indie folk - indie dance - indie electronic - new rave
Regional scenes	Largely global, England – Ireland – Scotland – Wales – USA – Canada – Sweden – Japan – Australia – Indonesia – Turkey
Other topics	Timeline of alternative rock, DIY ethic }}

Indie rock is a sub-genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others. Originally used to describe record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock. As grunge and punk revival bands in the US, and then Britpop bands in the UK, broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective. In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet, a number of indie rock acts began to enjoy commercial success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.

Characteristics

Indie rock, derived from "independent", describes the small and relatively low budget labels on which it is released and the do-it-yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved. Although distribution deals are often struck with major corporate companies these labels and the bands they host have attempted to retain their autonomy, leaving them free to explore sounds, emotions and subjects of limited appeal to large, mainstream audiences. The influences and styles of the artists has been extremely diverse, including punk, psychedelia, rock and country. The terms alternative rock and indie rock were used interchangeably in the 1980s, but after many alternative bands followed Nirvana into the mainstream in the early 1990s it began to be used to distinguish those bands, working in a variety of styles, that did not pursue or achieve commercial success.

Allmusic identifies indie rock as including a number of styles that are: "too sensitive and melancholy; too soft and delicate; too dreamy and hypnotic; too personal and intimately revealing in its lyrics; too low-fidelity and low-budget in its production; too angular in its melodies and riffs; too raw, skronky and abrasive, wrapped in too many sheets of Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr./Pixies/Jesus & Mary Chain-style guitar noise; too oblique and fractured in its song structures; too influenced by experimental or otherwise unpopular musical styles." Linked by an ethos more than a musical approach, the indie rock movement encompassed a wide range of styles, from hard-edged, grunge-influenced bands like The Cranberries and Superchunk, through do-it-yourself experimental bands like Pavement, to punk-folk singers such as Ani DiFranco. Many countries have developed an extensive local indie scene, flourishing with bands with enough popularity to survive inside the respective country, but virtually unknown outside them.

Indie rock has been identified as a reaction against the "macho" culture that developed in alternative rock in the aftermath of Nirvana's success. It has been noted that indie rock has a relatively high proportion of female artists compared with preceding rock genres, a tendency exemplified by the development of the feminist-informed Riot Grrrl music of acts like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, 7 Year Bitch, Team Dresch and Huggy Bear.

History

Origins: 1980s

College rock and noise rock

In the mid-1980s, the term "indie" began to be used to describe the music produced on post-punk labels rather than the labels themselves. The indie rock scene in the US was prefigured by the college rock that dominated college radio playlists which included key bands like R.E.M. from the US and The Smiths from the UK. These bands rejected the dominant synthpop of the early 1980s and helped inspire guitar based jangly guitar-pop; Other important bands in the genre included the dB's and Let's Active from the US and The Housemartins and The La's from the UK. In the United States, the term was particularly associated with the abrasive, distortion-heavy sounds of Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr., Pixies and The Replacements. The most abrasive and discordant outgrowth of punk was noise rock, which emphasised loud distorted electric guitars bands and powerful drums and was pioneered by bands including Sonic Youth, Swans, Big Black and Butthole Surfers. A number of prominent indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s. These include Washington, DC's Dischord Records in 1980, Seattle's Sub Pop Records in 1986 and New York City's Matador Records and Durham, North Carolina's Merge Records in 1989. Chicago's Touch and Go Records was founded as a fanzine in 1979 and began to release records during the 1980s.

Indie pop

In the United Kingdom the ''C86'' cassette, a 1986 ''NME'' premium featuring such bands as The Wedding Present, Primal Scream, The Pastels, and the Soup Dragons, was a document of the UK indie scene at the start of 1986, and gave its name to the indie pop scene that followed, which was a major influence on the development of the British indie scene as a whole. Major precursors of indie pop included Aztec Camera, Josef K and Orange Juice and major labels included Sarah, Bus Stop and Summershine. The Jesus and Mary Chain's sound combined the Velvet Underground's "melancholy noise" with Beach Boys pop melodies and Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" production, while New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band Joy Division and experimented with techno and house music. The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr, indie pop and the dream pop of Cocteau Twins, were the formative influences for the shoegazing movement of the late 1980s. Named for the band members' tendency to stare at their feet and guitar effects pedals onstage rather than interact with the audience, acts like My Bloody Valentine, and later Slowdive, Ride, and Lush created a loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback. The other major movement at the end of the 1980s was the drug-fuelled Madchester scene. Based around The Haçienda, a nightclub in Manchester owned by New Order and Factory Records, Madchester bands such as Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses mixed acid house dance rhythms, Northern soul and funk with melodic guitar pop.

Development: 1990s

Alternative enters the mainstream

The 1990s brought major changes to the alternative rock scene. Grunge bands such as Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam broke into the mainstream, achieving commercial chart success and widespread exposure. Punk revival bands like Green Day and The Offspring also became popular and were grouped under the "alternative" umbrella. Similarly, in the United Kingdom Britpop saw bands like Blur and Oasis emerged into the mainstream, abandoning the regional, small-scale and political elements of the 1980s indie scene. As a result of these changes the term "alternative" lost its original counter-cultural meaning and began to refer to the new form of music that was now achieving mainstream success. The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. Ryan Moore has argued that in the wake of the appropriation of alternative rock by the corporate music industry that what became known as indie rock increasingly turned to the past to produce forms of "retro" rock that drew on rockabilly, blues, country, swing and garage rock.

Diversification

By the end of the 1990s indie rock developed a number of sub-genres and related styles, in addition to indie pop and dream pop these included lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, noise pop, space rock, sadcore, and emo. Lo-fi eschewed polished recording techniques for a D.I.Y. ethos and was spearheaded by Beck, Sebadoh and Pavement, who were joined by eclectic folk and rock acts of the Elephant 6 collective, including Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power and Of Montreal. The work of Talk Talk and Slint helped inspire both post rock, an experimental style influenced by jazz and electronic music, pioneered by Bark Psychosis and taken up by acts such as Tortoise, Stereolab, and Laika, as well as leading to more dense and complex, guitar-based math rock, developed by acts like Polvo and Chavez. Space rock looked back to progressive roots, with drone heavy and minimalist acts like Spaceman 3 in the 1980s, the two bands created out of its split, Spectrum and Spiritualized, and later groups including Flying Saucer Attack, Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Quickspace. In contrast, Sadcore emphasised pain and suffering through melodic use of acoustic and electronic instrumentation in the music of bands like American Music Club and Red House Painters, while the revival of Baroque pop reacted against lo-fi and experimental music by placing an emphasis on melody and classical instrumentation, with artists like Arcade Fire, Belle and Sebastian and Rufus Wainright. The emo movement, which had grown out of the hardcore punk scene in the 1980s with bands like Fugazi and Rites of Spring, gained popularity as the 1990s progressed. Elliott, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Promise Ring, The Get Up Kids and others brought a more melodic sound to the genre. Weezer's ''Pinkerton'' (1996) introduced the genre to a wider and more mainstream audience.

Mainstream success: 2000s-Present

In the 2000s, the changing music industry, the decline in record sales, the growth of new digital technology and increased use of the internet as a tool for music promotion, allowed a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success. This new commercial breakthrough and the widespread use of the term indie to other forms of popular culture, led a number of commentators to suggest that indie rock has ceased to be a meaningful term.

Garage rock/post-punk revival

In the early 2000s, a new group of bands that played a stripped down and back-to-basics version of guitar rock, emerged into the mainstream. They were variously characterised as part of a garage rock, New Wave or post-punk revival. Because the bands came from across the globe, cited diverse influences (from traditional blues, through New Wave to grunge), and adopted differing styles of dress, their unity as a genre has been disputed. There had been attempts to revive garage rock and elements of punk in the 1980s and 1990s and by 2000 scenes had grown up in several countries. The Detroit rock scene included The Von Bondies, Electric Six, The Dirtbombs and The Detroit Cobras and that of New York Radio 4, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Rapture. Elsewhere, the Oblivians from Memphis Billy Childish and The Buff Medways from Britain, The (International) Noise Conspiracy from Sweden, and The 5.6.7.8's from Japan, enjoyed underground, regional or national success.

The commercial breakthrough from these scenes was led by four bands: The Strokes, who emerged from the New York club scene with their début album ''Is This It'' (2001); The White Stripes, from Detroit, with their third album ''White Blood Cells'' (2001); The Hives from Sweden after their compilation album ''Your New Favourite Band'' (2001); and The Vines from Australia with ''Highly Evolved'' (2002). They were christened by the media as the "The" bands, and dubbed "The saviours of rock 'n' roll", leading to accusations of hype. A second wave of bands that managed to gain international recognition as a result of the movement included The Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Modest Mouse, The Killers, Interpol and Kings of Leon from the US. From the UK were Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Editors and The Libertines, The Fratellis, Placebo, Razorlight, Kaiser Chiefs and The Kooks. The Arctic Monkeys were the most prominent act to owe their initial commercial success to the use of Internet social networking. Also successful were Jet from Australia and The Datsuns and The D4 from New Zealand.

Emo

Emo also broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s with the platinum-selling success of Jimmy Eat World's ''Bleed American'' (2001) and Dashboard Confessional's ''The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most'' (2003). The new emo had a much more mainstream sound then in the 1990s and a far greater appeal amongst adolescents than its earlier incarnations. At the same time, use of the term emo expanded beyond the musical genre, becoming associated with fashion, a hairstyle and any music that expressed emotion. The term emo has been applied by critics and journalists to a variety of artists, including multi-platinum acts such as Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance and disparate groups such as Paramore and Panic at the Disco, even when they protest the label.

"Indie landfill"

Existing indie bands that were now able to enter the mainstream included more musically and emotionally complex bands including Modest Mouse, whose 2004 album ''Good News for People Who Love Bad News'' reached the US top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award, Bright Eyes who in 2004 had two singles at the top of the Billboard magazine Hot 100 Single Sales and Death Cab for Cutie whose 2005 album ''Plans'' debuted at number four in the US, remaining on the Billboard charts for nearly one year and achieving platinum status and a Grammy nomination. By the end of the decade the proliferation of indie bands was being referred to as "indie landfill", a description coined by Andrew Harrison of ''The Word magazine'', and the dominance of pop and other forms of music over guitar-based indie was leading to predictions of the end of indie rock. However, there continued to be commercial successes like Kasabian's ''West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum'' (2009), which reached number one in the UK. In 2010, Canadian band Arcade Fire's album ''The Suburbs'' reached number one on the Billboard charts in the United States and the official chart in the United Kingdom, winning a Grammy for Album of The Year.

Indie electronic

Indie electronic, which had begun in the early 1990s with bands like Stereolab and Disco Inferno, took off in the new millennium as the new digital technology developed, with acts including Broadcast from the UK, Justice from France, Lali Puna from Germany and The Postal Service, and Ratatat and BOBBY from the US, mixing a variety of indie sounds with electronic music, largely produced on small independent labels. In Britain the combination of indie with dance-punk was dubbed new rave in publicity for Klaxons and the term was picked up and applied by the NME to bands including Trash Fashion, New Young Pony Club, Hadouken!, Late of the Pier, Test Icicles and Shitdisco, forming a scene with a similar visual aesthetic to earlier rave music.

See also

Independent music

Indie music scene

Indie cred

List of indie rock musicians

Underground music

Notes

External links

Indie Rock Cafe

Indie rock database in English and Spanish

Category:2000s in music Category:Sociological genres of music

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name	The Cribs
background	group_or_band
origin	Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England
genre	Garage rockPost-punk revivalPunkLo-fi (early)
years active	2001 – present
label	WichitaWarner Bros. Records (U.S.) Universal Records (Philippines)
website	Official site
current members	Gary JarmanRyan JarmanRoss Jarman
past members	Johnny Marr}}

The Cribs are an English three-piece rock band from Wakefield, West Yorkshire. The band consists of twins Gary and Ryan Jarman and their younger brother Ross Jarman. They were subsequently joined by ex-The Smiths and Modest Mouse guitarist Johnny Marr who was made a formal member of the group in 2008. Marr would remain as part of the band until 2011; his departure was officially announced on 11 April through the band's website. Despite returning to the original trio, the band currently enlists David Jones of Nine Black Alps as a second guitarist for live shows. The band, who first became active on the concert circuit in 2002, were initially tied to other like-minded UK bands of that time, most notably The Libertines, by a British music press that were looking for a 'British rearguard' to the wave of popular US alternative rock bands of the time. In 2008, ''Q'' magazine described the band as "The biggest cult band in the UK".

History

Formed in 2001, The Cribs began gigging locally and caught the eye of Leeds-based indie Squirrel Records; a handshake deal to release a one-off 7" was agreed soon after. Primarily a punk/garage/riot grrrl-based label, Squirrel was still in its infancy at this point, and the single "Baby Don't Sweat/You & I" (a split 7" with Jen Schande) didn't materialise until 2002. It was recorded by the band at their own Springtime Studios, a lo-fi all analogue set-up in an ancient mill.

The band has released four albums on the Wichita label - self-titled debut ''The Cribs'' in 2004, ''The New Fellas'' in 2005, ''Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever'' in 2007 and ''Ignore The Ignorant'' in 2009. Known for their staunchly purist approach to recording, the band have often been labeled as 'Lo-Fi'. Significantly, their debut album was recorded in seven days at London's Toe Rag Studio, onto 8-track. Toe Rag Studio is known for its vintage set-up which is as authentic to an original 1960s studio as is possible in the modern day. Parts of this record were taken from the original sessions the band recorded with Chicago-based avant-garde musician Bobby Conn.

''The New Fellas'', the band's second album release, was recorded with Edwyn Collins, the singer-songwriter and guitarist from Glasgow's influential Orange Juice in London at his own studio. Again, it was a comparatively unpolished record sonically, as both the producer Collins and the band themselves were achieving sounds similar to those heard on the Orange Juice records. This was, however, the intention and the reason the band and producer were put together. It was leaked onto the internet several months before the official release date, which hampered its chart placement – it has since however been certified a silver record by the BPI. B-sides from this period were self-produced by the band at their Springtime Studios.

''Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever'' saw the band finally take steps to progress forth from their 'lo-fi' roots, being recorded in Canada with Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand as producer. The album was mixed by Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Foo Fighters). The album was released on 21 May 2007 and was preceded by a single, "Men's Needs", on 7 May, which reached #17.

Currently, the bands last seven chart-eligible single releases have charted inside the UK Top 40.

Their song "Martell" from ''The New Fellas'' release was featured in the Canadian Telus commercial.

The band appeared on ''Later with Jools Holland'' in May 2007, prior to the release of ''Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever'', where they played the songs "Men's Needs", "Our Bovine Public" and "I'm a Realist". "Men's Needs" is the band's biggest hit to date, reaching number 17 in the UK charts. The track has also picked up many accolades, including being named 3rd-best track of 2007 by ''NME'', Track of the Year 2007 by the Metro paper and finishing in the 100 best tracks in ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in the USA.

Their song "Hey Scenesters!" was listed in NME's "50 Greatest Indie Anthems Of All Time". The band were one of only a few contemporary bands included in the list.

They appeared on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' on 18 July 2007, ''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' on 27 July 2007 and ''The Late Show with David Letterman'' on 18 March 2008.

Recently, the band were personally invited to support the Sex Pistols at four of their five comeback concerts in Brixton in November. In November 2007, The Cribs were named as the headlining act of the 2008 NME Awards Tour. They were nominated for four NME awards: Best British Band, Best Live Act, Best Track ("Men's Needs") and Hero Of The Year (Ryan Jarman), but won none of these awards. In February 2008, they released "I'm A Realist"/"Bastards of Young", the latter a cover of a song by The Replacements.

Johnny Marr, former guitarist for The Smiths, would become a full-time member of the band in 2008. In an interview with ''Baeblemusic.com'', Ross Jarman said they met Marr at "the Glastonbury Festival and have been jamming together for the last couple years".

The band's fourth album ''Ignore The Ignorant'' was recorded with post-punk producer Nick Launay at Los Angeles' Seedy Underbelly studios and released in the United States on 7 September 2009, preceded by first single "Cheat On Me".

In December 2009, ''Ignore The Ignorant'' was placed at number 11 in Mojo magazine's "Albums Of The Year", and at number 7 in The Fly's "Albums Of The Year". At the same time, ''The New Fellas'' was named an "Album Of The Century" by ''Q''.

On 9 August 2010, Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe announced during his show that he would be playing a brand new Cribs song that night. The very next day, "Housewife" was released officially on iTunes. No one, from music industry insiders to the band's fans, had any idea that a new single was being geared up until that moment.

On 11 April 2011, the band confirmed that Marr would no longer be part of the band, while Marr also released a statement saying that he would be working on solo material. Earlier in the year, the band announced their plans to work on their fifth album after the summer's festival season.

On 20 July 2011, they were the first part of The Strokes at Le Zénith de Paris.

Live performances

Known for their raucous, unpredictable live shows the band have built-up a fanatical following due to a heavy touring schedule since the release of the first record. Their DIY ethic also led to them touring independently, when they were supposed to be off the road writing. Although this contributed to the band's success, and much larger venues, the band have always claimed to be more at home doing things in that way. On their first tour back after recording the third record in early 2007 the band returned to their roots and held some gigs in very small, intimate venues, including a show in their hometown at the Wakefield Escobar and another at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds (a venue they used to play at when they first started out). In June, they returned to Leeds at the climax of their full-size UK tour with two consecutive sold out nights at the University Refectory (the first band to do this since Ian Dury and the Blockheads 30 years ago). They subsequently came back and accomplished the same feat in 2008, after the show being presented with an award by the University for being the first band in its history to have '2 consecutive years of 2 consecutive nights of sell-out shows at Leeds University Refectory'.

In November 2007, they were invited by The Sex Pistols to support them for 4 nights at the Brixton Academy to mark the 30th anniversary of their Never Mind The Bollocks album.

In 2008, The Cribs headlined the Radio1/NME stage at the Leeds Festival, and the Reading Festival. The Cribs, along with The Subways and Frank Turner are also the only bands in the festivals history to progress through all the festivals stages in consecutive years, Carling Stage (2004), Radio1/NME Stage (2005), Main Stage (2006) - though The Cribs would trump them due to a performance they made on the Comedy Stage in 2002 and a headlining set on the Radio1/NME Stage in 2008. The band were announced as one of the acts to perform on the main stage in 2010.

On 8 December 2008, ''NME'' announced that the band would be playing a short UK tour to promote their latest album, due to be recorded shortly after. The tour visits a number of small intimate venues, including The Ritz in Manchester, London's Heaven, the ABC in Glasgow and St George's Hall in Bradford.

The band announced a UK tour to support the new album. It ran from 24 September 2009 to 15 October 2009 and takes in 14 venues. Afterwards, they had dates in Japan, New York, Los Angeles, and Europe (supporting Franz Ferdinand in the latter) before another four UK gigs in December, which saw them headline their first arena when they played Doncaster Dome. January 2010 saw a full tour of the U.S. and Canada. In February 2010, they toured Australia and New Zealand - playing in Wellington on 26 February and Auckland on the 27th. In June 2011, the band played its first shows in Brazil.

The Cribs have announced they will be playing at ''Get Loaded In The Park'' 2011 on Clapham Common, London on Sunday 12 June.

They will also be playing at Latitude Festival 2011 in Suffolk, England on Saturday 16 July at the Obelisk Arena. The played, on the 20the of July in Paris at the Zenith, before the Strokes.

Collaborations

In 2007 Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth collaborated with the band on their third album. The track "Be Safe" is a Ranaldo spoken word piece performed by the artist, and backed with The Cribs' music. They have a history of collaborations with artists such as Edwyn Collins (Orange Juice), Jon Slade (Huggy Bear, Comet Gain), Bobby Conn (Bobby Conn and The Glass Gypsies), Bernard Butler (Suede, McAlmont and Butler), Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse), the aforementioned Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand).

Discography

Studio Albums

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" !rowspan="2" width="50" |Year !rowspan="2" width="200"|Album Details !colspan="1" width="60"|Peak Chart Positions !rowspan="2" width="80"|Certifications(sales thresholds) |- !style="width:4em;font-size:70%;"|UK |- |2004 |align="left"| ''The Cribs''

Released: 1 July 2004

Label: Wichita Recordings

Formats: CD, Vinyl, Digital Download

|96 |align="left"| |- |2005 |align="left"| ''The New Fellas''

Released: 1 July 2005

Label: Wichita Recordings

Formats: CD, Vinyl, Digital Download

|78 |align="left"|

UK: Silver

|- |2007 |align="left"| ''Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever''

Released: 21 May 2007

Label: Wichita Recordings, Warner Bros. Records

Formats: CD, Vinyl, Digital Download

|13 |align="left"|

UK: Silver

|- |2009 |align="left"| ''Ignore The Ignorant''

Released: 7 September 2009

Label: Wichita Recordings, Warner Bros. Records

Formats: CD, Vinyl, Digital Download

|8 |align="left"|

UK: Silver

|- |}

Singles

Year	Title	Chart Positions	Album
		! width="45"
	"Baby Don't Sweat"
"You Were Always The One"
"What About Me"
	"Hey Scenesters!"
"Mirror Kissers"
"Martell"
"You're Gonna Lose Us"
	"Men's Needs"
2008	"I'm A Realist" (Chart ineligible vinyl-only release)
	"Cheat On Me"
"We Share The Same Skies" (Chart ineligible vinyl-only release)
2010	"Housewife" (Unannounced surprise single. Vinyl and download only)

References

External links

The Cribs Official Site

The Cribs video interview

Cornell Daily Sun Interview

Johnny Marr reveals new Cribs album release date

Interview with Ryan and Gary Jarman, Sept 2009

Category:English indie rock groups Category:Music from Yorkshire Category:People from Wakefield Category:Post-punk revival music groups

de:The Cribs es:The Cribs fr:The Cribs ko:크립스 it:The Cribs lt:The Cribs nl:The Cribs ja:ザ・クリブス pl:The Cribs sv:The Cribs th:เดอะคริบส์

title	Scott Pilgrim
format	Digest limited series
genre	Comedy ActionRomance
publisher	Oni Press
date	August 18, 2004 - July 20, 2010
volumes	6
main char team	(List of characters)
writers	Bryan Lee O'Malley
artists	Bryan Lee O'Malley
tpb	Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
isbn	1-932664-08-4
tpb2	Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
isbn2	1-932664-12-2
tpb3	Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness
isbn3	1-932664-22-X
tpb4	Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
isbn4	1-932664-49-1
tpb5	Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe
isbn5	1-934964-10-7
tpb6	Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
isbn6	1-934964-38-7
subcat	Oni Press
sort	Scott Pilgrim
nonus	}}

''Scott Pilgrim'' is a graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. It consists of six digest size black-and-white volumes, released between August 2004 and July 2010, by Portland-based independent comic book publisher Oni Press. The series is about 23-year-old Canadian Scott Pilgrim, 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.

A film adaptation of the series titled ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'' starring actor Michael Cera in the title role was released in August 2010. A videogame of the same name developed by Ubisoft for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade was released the same month.

Development

Creator Bryan Lee O'Malley was inspired to create the series and eponymous character of Scott Pilgrim after listening to Canadian band Plumtree's 1998 single "Scott Pilgrim", a song then-Plumtree singer Carla Gillis describes as "positive, but...also bitter sweet." In particular, O'Malley was inspired by the lyric, "I’ve liked you for a thousand years,".

To illustrate his reasoning for eventually ending the ''Scott Pilgrim'' series, O'Malley used a quote from famed Belgian comics writer and artist Hergé, creator, writer, and illustrator of the well-regarded ''The Adventures of Tintin'' comic book series, from 1929 until his death in 1983. Hergé told his wife "And right now, my work makes me sick. Tintin is no longer me. And I must make a terrible effort to invent (him)… If Tintin continues to live, it is through a sort of artificial respiration that I must constantly keep up and which is exhausting me." O'Malley said "If I was still doing Scott Pilgrim in ten years, I would be dead inside."

Plot summary

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (Volume 1)

The series begins by introducing Scott Pilgrim, a 23-year-old Canadian slacker living in Toronto with his gay roommate Wallace Wells. He is the bass player for a band called Sex Bob-omb, along with his friends Stephen Stills "The Talent" (guitar) and Kim Pine (drums). He begins dating a Chinese-Canadian high-schooler, Knives Chau. Kim criticizes the relationship due to Knives' age, but Scott dismisses her complaints by pointing out that the relationship is platonic.

One night, Scott begins dreaming about a girl on Rollerblades who he has never met before. He later glimpses her in real life delivering a package to the library. Her repeated presence in his dreams, and a coincidental meeting at a party thrown by Stephen's on-off girlfriend Julie Powers, prompts him to become obsessed with finding out more about her. He discovers that she is Ramona Flowers, a girl who works for Amazon.ca and has recently come to Toronto from New York after a rumored messy break-up with someone named Gideon.

Scott orders CDs on Amazon as a pretense to meet her again, and receives an email from someone named Matthew Patel warning him about an upcoming battle, but Scott pays it little heed and promptly deletes it. After another dream about Ramona, in which she is carrying his package, Scott wakes to find her at his door. She explains that she uses subspace portals as part of her job to cross long distances in seconds; one such route passes through Scott's brain, hence his dreams. Having convinced her he is not a strange person after their previous encounters, they spend the evening together and go back to her house during a heavy snowstorm, kiss, and spend the night together.

The next day, Wallace informs Scott that he needs to break up with Knives if he plans to pursue a serious relationship with Ramona, but when he meets Knives later in preparation for a band gig, Scott is unable to bring himself to break up with her. He also receives a letter from Matthew, which he again disregards.

At the venue, Sex Bob-omb prepare to begin their set when Matthew Patel descends upon the stage and engages Scott in a video game-style duel. He reveals himself as one of Ramona's evil ex-boyfriends, and has mystical powers that allow him to summon "demon hipster chicks." Scott defeats him in a musical battle, his final attack obliterating Matthew and leaving behind a handful of coins. On the subway home, Scott and Ramona decide to become a couple, on the proviso that Scott agree to defeat her six other evil-exes. When Scott asks if Gideon is one of them, Ramona's head glows sharply.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Volume 2)

''Vs. The World'' opens with a flashback to Scott Pilgrim as a transfer student to St. Joel's Catholic High School in Northern Ontario, seven years before the series begins. After getting into a short fight moments upon enrolling, Scott meets Lisa Miller who immediately befriends him. Scott and Lisa attempt to start a band, only to realize that they are missing a drummer. Meanwhile, Scott meets Kim in his geography class, noticing her ability to play drums. Lisa and Scott scheme to ask Kim to join the band, but when Scott shows up to school the following Monday, he finds out that Kim has been kidnapped by students from the rival Benvie Tech High School. Scott defeats the students and Kim's kidnapper, Simon Lee, and rescues Kim. Kim joins Scott and Lisa's band Sonic & Knuckles, and dates Scott up until they break up when he tells her he has to move to Toronto.

In the present, Scott and Wallace ride the bus together, and Wallace tells him that actor and professional skateboarder Lucas Lee, Ramona's second evil ex-boyfriend, is filming a new movie in Toronto. Wallace also tells him to break up with Knives, or he will tell Ramona about her. Scott goes to meet Knives and awkwardly breaks it off, but is cheered by thoughts of Ramona who spends the night with him while he watches several of Lucas Lee's films to "train". The next day, Scott shows up at the video store Julie works at to rent several of Lucas Lee's films to prepare for his next battle. While his friends make dinner, Knives spots Scott with Ramona.

Scott goes to meet Lucas at his filming location, Casa Loma. Lucas immediately beats Scott up, after which they take a lunch break and Lucas tells Scott about how Ramona broke his heart, and how there is a "League of Ramona's Evil Ex-Boyfriends" who have organized themselves to come after Scott. Scott then defeats Lucas by goading him into skateboarding down a dangerous set of rails, where he ends up going too fast and bursting into coins upon landing.

Infuriated with Ramona for stealing Scott from her, Knives gives herself a hipster makeover by dyeing her forelock and attacks Ramona at the Toronto Reference Library. After a short battle and various insults, Knives confirms that Scott was cheating on her by dating Ramona simultaneously and takes off. Meanwhile, Scott gets a call from Envy Adams, Scott's ex-girlfriend, who asks him to open for her band The Clash at Demonhead that weekend. Speaking with Envy reopens Scott's unresolved issues about their breakup and he becomes a mess. Nevertheless, Sex-Bob-omb show up to see Envy's band on Friday, only to discover that Knives is now dating Young Neil, Stephen Stills's roommate. The book ends with an epic opening by The Clash at Demonhead, where Ramona identifies the band's bassist as her third evil ex-boyfriend, Todd Ingram.

Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness (Volume 3)

''The Infinite Sadness'' continues the night that The Clash at Demonhead performs. After the venue clears out, Envy invites Scott, Ramona, Kim Pine, Stephen, Julie, Knives, and Young Neil backstage with them to "chat". Knives, who idolizes Envy, blurts out that she also dated Scott, and has the highlights punched out of her hair by The Clash at Demonhead's drummer, Lynette Guycott. Knives, humiliated, leaves with Young Neil. Disgusted by Envy's new personality, Scott blames Todd for changing her and tries to attack him, but is stopped by Todd's psychic 'vegan' powers.

The story then unfolds with a series of flashbacks detailing the relationship between Scott and Envy, then known as Natalie V. Adams, a mousy girl who gradually bloomed into a confident, musical talent, finally adopting the name "Envy". She broke up with Scott once their band started to get noticed, and Scott's devastation resulted in him and Wallace becoming friends.

The next day, Scott and Todd engage in an unsuccessful challenge at Honest Ed's department store, where neither comes out the winner. They agree to fight again the following night. Ramona convinces Scott to ditch the challenge and they return to Ramona's apartment. After an unsuccessful make-out session, Ramona begins to fill Scott in about her relationship with Todd. In a flashback to their college years, Todd proves his love to Ramona by using his newly-gained vegan powers to blow a crater in the moon. Meanwhile, Todd is secretly cheating on his vegan diet (by eating gelato) as well as cheating on Envy with Lynette.

Later, that evening, before opening for Envy's band, Ramona and Envy get into an argument and begin to fight, Ramona armed with a giant mallet. As Envy starts to get the upper hand, Knives attacks her for the sake of Scott's happiness. Before Sex Bob-omb can perform, Scott sees Envy about to kill Ramona and Knives, and jumps from the stage to hit her "weak point"—the back of her knees. Envy then discovers Todd cheating on her with Lynette, but after confronting him, Todd unapologetically strikes her with his powers, shocking everyone. Todd and Scott then proceed to have a bass battle, and Scott is aided by the powers of Crash and the Boys (the opening band for the evening). Todd almost wins the battle until the Vegan Police show up and strip him of his powers for violating his vegan diet. Scott headbutts the powerless Todd, who is reduced to a pile of coins, and receives an extra life in the process. Finally, Sex Bob-omb gets to play, and Scott spots a strange character (Gideon) from the stage. The volume ends with Envy moving back home.

''The Infinite Sadness'' also features extras, such as guest comics from Josh Lesnick, Alex Ahad, Andy Helms, John Allison, and David McGuire, as well as a map of the major characters illustrating their relations to each other. The title is a reference to the album ''Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'' by The Smashing Pumpkins.

Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (Volume 4)

(note: ''Gets it Together'' features a format change of the series' original spine art)

After a summer break at The Beaches for Julie's birthday, Kim moves into an apartment with her friends, Hollie and Joseph. Stephen notices Joseph has a home recording studio, and asks him to help Sex Bob-omb record an album. As Scott goes to the Dufferin Mall to escape a heat wave, he sees Lisa Miller, later re-acquainting her with Kim and introducing her to Ramona and the others. Meanwhile, at Knives's house, Knives and her friend Tamara notice that the picture of Scott on Knives's shrine is mysteriously slashed.

Annoyed with running into his daft subspace dreams in the middle of the day, Ramona recommends that Scott get a job. Kim brings him to The Happy Avocado, a vegetarian restaurant where Stephen works, where he gets a job as a dishwasher. Shortly afterward, Scott and Kim are attacked by a samurai, who slices a streetcar in half and chases them until they escape via a subspace portal. The next day, Scott and Wallace venture to the financial district to meet with their landlord, Peter, who tells them that they must re-sign the lease or leave by August 27. Wallace recommends that Scott move in with Ramona. As Scott contemplates this, he briefly encounters a female "half-ninja", who unsuccessfully attacks him and disappears. The following afternoon, Scott spots the same girl talking to Ramona at the restaurant where he works. She is revealed to be Roxie Richter, Ramona's fourth evil ex. Not keen on fighting girls or people with swords, Scott hides in Ramona's bag while she heads into a subspace portal and fights Roxie. After nearly killing Ramona, Roxie leaves. Afterward, Ramona tells Scott that he can move in with her temporarily. Later on, though, things go downhill when Ramona suspects Scott might be attracted to Lisa and kicks him out.

After walking in on Wallace having sex with someone in their apartment and being informed that he was fired from his job during the fight, Scott goes to Lisa's house to spend the night. Lisa recalls their high school friendship, asking whether Scott had any feelings for her then and if they should have an affair now. After waking up from a dream infiltrated by Roxie in an attempt to kill him, Scott cannot remember the previous night, but learns from Lisa that nothing happened between them and that he confessed that he loved Ramona. Scott gets his job back and goes to the Second Cup, where he finds Knives working there. He is suddenly attacked by the samurai, revealed to be Knives's father who was not keen on Knives dating a white boy. Scott escapes via another subspace portal and ends up in Ramona's mind, where she is a slave to a shadowy figure. Ramona kicks Scott out of her head, telling him to forget what he saw, but before he can explain his true feelings, he sees that Roxie spent the night at Ramona's and his head begins to glow. Ramona tells him to walk it off and as he does, Scott encounters his dark self and rejects it, rushing back to Ramona to find her being attacked by Mr. Chau. Scott lures him away and gets him to fight against Roxie. When Scott realizes that he has been cowardly, he plucks up the courage to confess his love for Ramona, earning the Power of Love sword, which emerges from his chest. Scott uses this to defeat Roxie, Ninja Gaiden-style, who warns him about "the twins" before dying. Scott then apologizes to Mr. Chau, who leaves having earned respect for Scott, before Scott finally moves in with Ramona. After the group gives Lisa a farewell meal, Ramona finally tells Scott her age, which is 24.

The back of ''Gets it Together'' features guest art from Steve Manale, Michael Comeau, Philip Bond, and Zander Cannon as well as a back cover illustrated by pixel artist Miguel Sternberg.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe (Volume 5)

(note: The first printing of ''Vs. the Universe'' features a shiny cover.)

After Scott turns 24, the gang attends a Mexican Day of the Dead themed party thrown by Julie where Ramona spots her next two evil ex-boyfriends, the twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi. Scott approaches them and prepares to fight, but instead is forced to fight their robot, Robot-01. He defeats the robot and "wins the party." Meanwhile, Knives talks to Stephen, who has permanently broken up with Julie and who reiterates that Scott cheated on her with Ramona. She wonders if Ramona knows about it. November continues to show the deteriorating status of Scott and Ramona's relationship, with Ramona starting to appear bored and Scott stumbling onto signs that she may still be interested in Gideon. She at one point tells Scott that she doesn't like his band, which hasn't done any gigs since they started "recording," which distresses Scott (even Wallace doesn't like his band) and leaves him unable to sleep. Later, Sex Bob-omb prepares for a show at Sneaky Dee's, even though they haven't rehearsed in months due to Stephen's persistent but fruitless recording with Joseph. Their performance, which was doomed to fail anyway, is interrupted by another one of the twins' robots, which Scott defeats, breaking his bass in the process. During this time, Ramona encounters Knives in the bathroom, who tells her that Scott cheated on them at the same time. On the way home, Scott admits that he forgot his keys and Ramona refuses to let him in for the night. He ends up staying with Wallace, who has since moved in with his boyfriend Mobile, and Wallace gives him photos he has found of Gideon Graves, all of which are blurry or indistinct.

After spending the next night at Kim's, Scott arranges a setup so that he can casually bump into Kim and Ramona while they get coffee. During the conversation, Kim brings attention to Ramona's head glowing, of which she herself was unaware, although it disappears before she can see for herself. They later all attend another of Julie's parties that night where Scott is forced to fight yet another robot. Kim approaches Ramona on the balcony, and takes a picture with her camera phone of Ramona's head, which is yet again glowing. Kim and Ramona proceed to get drunk, and after defeating the robot, Scott joins them. Later, Kim takes the subway home, but is kidnapped by the twins. After some initial intimacy, Ramona confronts Scott about cheating on Knives with her and tells him he is just another evil ex-boyfriend waiting to happen, which worries Scott into thinking they might break up. While Ramona takes a shower in the early morning, Scott receives word of Kim's kidnapping, and rushes to a construction site to face the twins, despite being disadvantaged due to his hangover. During the fight, the twins explain that Ramona cheated on both of them at the same time, and imply Scott is fighting for the wrong girl. As he begins to lose the fight, Kim lies and says that Ramona text messaged her to give Scott the encouragement to defeat the twins simultaneously.

Scott rushes back to the apartment. Ramona, now with her hair cut and dyed again, tells Scott that she is a bad person and that she "had a good time." Her head begins to glow brighter and brighter until she disappears. Scott tries to look for her, but instead lets her cat out and accidentally locks himself out of her apartment. Over the next few days, Scott bed-hops while trying to get Ramona's cat to come back and constantly mistaking people for Gideon. Kim moves back home to the north, accepting Scott's apology for his behavior. After moving into a new apartment, Scott reads a note Ramona left behind addressed to Gideon, telling him she would not come back to him. While Scott wonders what this means, he receives a call from Gideon, asking when it would be convenient to die.

The end of ''Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe'' features a section called "Creating Scott Pilgrim for fun and profit." The section includes drawings and comments from Bryan Lee O'Malley detailing the development of the series, including a playlist for the fifth book.

Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour (Volume 6)

Four months after Ramona's disappearance, Scott has been wasting his life playing video games, to the chagrin of his friends. At a party, he is shocked to learn that Knives will be leaving for college soon, and later runs into Envy, who is beginning to promote her much anticipated solo album. Later talking over coffee, Envy expresses concern for Scott and points out their breakup was a result of an argument which Scott apparently started, though he cannot remember. Gideon, who is revealed to be dating Envy, appears during their conversation, but Scott ends up fleeing.

In order to reinvigorate Scott to confront Gideon, Wallace sends him on a "wilderness sabbatical" to Kim's home up north. During this time, Scott tries to rekindle his relationship with Kim, but is rejected when Kim points out errors in his memory surrounding their breakup. Scott began dating Kim after beating up Simon Lee, a wimpy kid who was dating her at the time, not a suave villain as Scott remembered. Likewise, Kim only learned that Scott would be leaving for Toronto from Lisa—Scott never told her in person that they would have to break up. Upon this revelation, Scott's head starts to glow and the NegaScott emerges. Scott becomes determined to defeat him so he can forget his relationship with Ramona and move on, but Kim reminds him he cannot keep running away from his mistakes. During the fight, Scott remembers Ramona and merges with NegaScott, fully remembering and accepting responsibility for his poor actions in his previous relationships. After receiving one last good luck kiss from Kim, Scott heads back to Toronto to earn Ramona back.

Scott arrives at the newly-opened club, the Chaos Theatre, owned by Gideon, where Envy is making her solo debut. As Envy starts her performance, Gideon attacks Scott, who is enraged to learn that Ramona is not with him. When Scott refuses to join the League of Evil Exes, Gideon steals his Power of Love sword and kills him with it. Scott awakens in a desert, where he encounters Ramona, who apologizes and attempts to explain why she left, though the reader is not privy to what she says. They reconcile, but Ramona reminds Scott that he is dead. However, he returns to life thanks to the extra life he obtained from Todd Ingram, and Ramona bursts out of his chest to confront Gideon. Gideon reveals several cryogenic capsules inside the club filled with former girlfriends, wanting Ramona to join them (despite that Gideon kept pushing her away during their time, a fact which he can't remember, either). He fights them and explains that he formed the league following a drunken post on Craigslist after his breakup with Ramona.

Ramona tries to use the glow to escape into subspace, but Gideon stabs her. He explains that glow is an emotional weapon which seals people inside their own heads, consumed by self-loathing. After learning from Ramona that Gideon literally has a way of getting inside her head, Scott jumps into Ramona's subspace bag and arrives in her head, where he finds and confronts Gideon. Scott's actions encourage Ramona to fully overcome his influence and oust him from her head. Ramona retrieves the Power of Love sword, healing her wounds, but breaks her bag. When Scott sees Gideon snap at Envy, he comes to understand him and earns the Power of Understanding sword. As they fight him, Gideon reveals he had been watching the two via the subspace highway in Scott's head, altering some of his memories in the process. Whilst Gideon tries to turn Scott and Ramona against one another, they defeat him, causing him to explode into seven million, seven hundred and seventy-seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy-seven dollars in coins.

Scott and Envy reach closure and Gideon's former girlfriends are unfrozen (and they have no idea of what just happened). Ramona reveals that her disappearance was merely an unsuccessful wilderness sabbatical to find herself while at her dad's cabin. She decides to give her relationship with Scott another shot. In the closing pages, Scott is working with Stephen as co-chef, Stephen reveals that he is gay and in a relationship with Joseph, Scott and Kim start an awful new band, and Knives heads off to college. The last pages show Scott meeting up with Ramona as they affirm their desire to face the challenges of a relationship and walk hand in hand into a subspace door together.

On June 3, 2010, O'Malley announced that he had hidden the word "hipster" on Ramona's t-shirt in one panel to mark the day he finished drawing the series. This panel is on page 161 in a flashback involving Ramona and Gideon.

Publications

The main graphic novel series is:

''Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life'' ''Scott Pilgrim vs. The World'' ''Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness'' ''Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together'' ''Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe'' ''Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour''

!#!!Title!!ISBN!!Release date
1	|	ISBN 1-932664-08-4	August 18, 2004
2	|	ISBN 1-932664-12-2	June 15, 2005
3	|	ISBN 1-932664-22-X	May 24, 2006
4	|	ISBN 1-932664-49-1	November 14, 2007
5	|	ISBN 1-934964-10-7	February 4, 2009
6	|	ISBN 1-934964-38-7	July 20, 2010

Other appearances:

''Comics Festival'' (40-page anthology including a one-page Scott Pilgrim comic; released on Free Comic Book Day 2005)

''PENG'' (72-page one-shot comic book by Corey Lewis where Scott Pilgrim appears in one panel; released in 2005)

''Free Scott Pilgrim #1 FCBD 2006 Edition'' (32-page comic book featuring an 17-page original Scott Pilgrim story; released on Free Comic Book Day 2006) This story is available for free online at the Scott Pilgrim Website

''Comics Festival 2007!'' (40-page anthology including a half-page Scott Pilgrim comic and a 4-page Wonderful World of Kim Pine comic; released on Free Comic Book Day 2007)

''Scott Pilgrim: Full Colour Odds & Ends 2008'' (collects ''Free Scott Pilgrim #1'' - newly coloured by Dean Trippe, ''Wonderful World of Kim Pine'' four-page story, ''Now Magazine Best of Toronto'' two-page strip in black-and-white, the Comics Fest 07 ''sushi'' strip, and various watercolours, pin-ups, and advertisements)

All of these ancillary stories are available to read on the Scott Pilgrim Website. A collector's box containing all six volumes and a fold-in poster was released in North America on November 3, 2010.

Critical reception

The first volume of ''Scott Pilgrim'' was well-received by comic book critics and had favorable reviews outside the comic book industry, in ''Publishers Weekly'' and on E! Online among others. Critics appreciated how O'Malley's cartoony-looking and manga-inspired artwork managed to express the character's emotions with few, seemingly simple lines. His style also often references Japanese manga artists, such as Kiyohiko Azuma and Osamu Tezuka. The style choices are also made in part from his departure from more dramatic content such as in ''Lost at Sea''.

While there were some objections against the book's art, its humor made the book very popular and garnered it much praise, as did its "strong characterization and convincing dialogue". Only the video-game-like fight sequence at the end (wherein Scott fights Matthew Patel, the first of Ramona's evil exes, in a style reminiscent of ''Street Fighter'') was not met as enthusiastically as the rest of the book by all readers and it was noted that the scene "completely abandons the tone, pace and genre of everything that comes before it".

The second volume received equally good reviews, with some critics grading it "even better" than the first volume and continuing to praise the series' humor and how O'Malley manages to shift readers' sympathies from one character to the other by expanding the characterizations of the cast, giving new insights into the characters' pasts. Critics also noted how seemingly effortlessly O'Malley manages to mix "relatively real life and superhero power fantasies".

Publishers Weekly ranked the third volume, ''Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness'', as one of the best comic books of 2006 in a critics' poll.

Scott Pilgrim was ranked 85th on Wizard magazine's 2008 list of the "200 Greatest Comic Characters of All Time".

In 2007, O'Malley was interviewed by the AV Club for the fourth volume. Written by Jason Heller, the article states that ''Gets It Together'' is "his best to date." The article goes on to praise O'Malley's consistent bold stylistic choices, saying that he "has raised the bar, art-wise: His deceptively basic style is suddenly deeper, richer, and more mature, while his eye for dynamics and graphic economy has gotten even keener." In 2011 Scott Pilgrim was ranked 69th in the Top 100 Comic books heroes.

Awards

In 2005, O'Malley won the Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent for the first volume of ''Scott Pilgrim'' and was nominated for three Harvey Awards (Best New Talent, Best Cartoonist and Best Graphic Album of Original Work).

In 2006, O'Malley was awarded Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Cartoonist (Writer/Artist) in the Joe Shuster Awards. He was previously nominated in the same category in 2005.

O'Malley was nominated for a 2006 Eisner Award in the category Best Writer/Artist—Humor, for ''Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World'', but lost to Kyle Baker. O'Malley and ''Scott Pilgrim'' were also nominated for two 2006 Eagle Awards, and nominated for a second Wright Award (for ''Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World'').

In 2007, O'Malley won the Harvey Award. The series was also awarded a spot in Entertainment Weekly's 2007 A-List.

In 2010, O'Malley won his first Eisner Award in the "Best Humor Publication" category for ''Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe.''

In other media

Film

The film ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'' was released on August 13, 2010. It is based on all six volumes of the graphic novel series, despite the different ending due to the sixth volume having been released after the film finished shooting. The film is directed by Edgar Wright and stars Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Scott and Ramona, respectively.

The film was a critical success, but did not fare as well commercially. Despite the lack of advertising the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray and became popular. The DVD includes extras such as bloopers and outtakes, deleted scenes and trailers. On the 2-disc edition, the 2nd disc includes soundtracks, animation (when Scott dates Kim), the film in the making and sound in the making.

''Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation''

At the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, Alison Pill (who plays Kim Pine in the movie), revealed that her character's past relationship with Scott will be explored in other media. "There will be a little something-something that will air on Adult Swim," she said. Creator Bryan Lee O'Malley elaborated by stating "It's gonna be like a series of short animations (to promote the movie). One of them will be the Volume 2 high school stuff with Kim and Lisa Miller. I don't know how long it will be but the rough they showed me was like 5 minutes. The stars of the movie will do the voices for the cartoons." Michael Cera and Alison Pill reprise their roles of Scott Pilgrim and Kim Pine from the movie, whilst Mae Whitman and Jason Schwartzman, who play Roxanne Richter and Gideon Graves in the movie, provide voices for Lisa Miller and Simon Lee respectively. The animated short, entitled ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation'', was produced by Titmouse Inc. and aired on Adult Swim on August 12, 2010, later being released on their website. The short is based on the flashback from the second graphic novel, elaborating on Scott's adventures in high school. The animation features music by Wavves, though it is replaced with the movie's soundtrack in the version included on the DVD/Bluray Disc of the film.

Video game

A video game based on the series, also titled ''Scott Pilgrim vs. The World'', was announced during San Diego Comic Con 2009 and was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, released alongside the film. The game is a four-player side-scroller influenced by 8-bit and 16-bit video games, with players able to play as Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Kim Pine and Stephen Stills (Knives Chau was added later as a downloadable character). If you complete the game with Scott, Ramona, Stephen Stills, and Kim, you unlock NegaScott. Mr. Chau, Knives Chau's father, is also an unlockable assist character. The game features music by chiptune punk band Anamanaguchi and visuals by Paul Robertson, who is well known for producing stylized sprite-based animations.

The game was released on PlayStation Network on August 10, 2010 and Xbox Live Arcade on August 25, 2010.

Mobile comic

A mobile adaptation of the comic book was produced by HarperCollins and Robot Comics. The app uses movement, sound and vibration to create an original reading experience and includes extra material hidden in the scenes of the comic. It is available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android.

References

External links

Bryan Lee O'Malley's website

ScottPilgrim.com

''Scott Pilgrim vs. The World The Game'' at Ubisoft

Category:Oni Press graphic novels Category:Canadian comics titles Category:Oni Press titles Category:Toronto in fiction Category:Fictional rock musicians Category:Fictional Canadian people Category:Comics adapted into films Category:Romance comics Category:Humor comics Category:Comic book digests Category:Harvey Award winners for Best Graphic Album of Original Work Category:Canadian graphic novels Category:Scott Pilgrim

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