Scott Pilgrim VS The World: The Game is back, and it’s great, surprising no one.
The game sold 25,000 copies on Limited Run in its first three hours on sale, and has
likely sold many more of digital storefronts.
Scott Pilgrim VS The World initially started as a tie-in for the movie of the same name,
but is based more closely on the Scott Pilgrim comics by Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley.
The story of an unemployed video game-obsessed bass guitarist who has to defeat his girlfriend’s
seven evil exes may sound ridiculous, but, surprisingly enough, it’s actually based
on a true story.
Sort of.
Bear with us.
Not so long ago, in the mysterious land of Toronto, Canada…Bryan Lee O’Malley was
dating an American.
Not just any American either – Hope Larson is herself an award-winning cartoonist, so
she and O’Malley had a lot in common.
O’Malley had a lot on his plate at this moment in time.
He was wrapping up his first graphic novel, Lost at Sea, about a teenage girl who worries
that her soul is inside a cat.
He was also playing in his own band, Kupek, touring Toronto’s many bars, such as the
Rockit, which, fun fact, was a toilet.
Said O’Malley: “Basically when I finished Lost at Sea,
I showed it to my friends, and it made them very uncomfortable because it's very emotional.
So yeah, I definitely wanted to make something that would make my friends happy, that would
make them laugh.”
While talking casually with his girlfriend, O’Malley learned that, by complete coincidence,
three of her ex-boyfriends were all named Matthew.
He thought this was very funny.
He started imagining a league of evil Matthews.
What would that be like?
What if he had to fight them?
What if he had to defeat the League of Evil Matthews in order to date Hope Larson?
Suddenly, O’Malley had an idea for his next comic – one which, he hoped, would make
his friends laugh more than the more serious Lost at Sea.
From this, O’Malley started simply writing his own life.
He was the protagonist, Larson was the girl of his dreams who was constantly rollerskating
through his head.
He said: “My life at the time became the basis for
Scott’s cast of characters: the American girlfriend, the unforgettable ex, the gay
roommate, the sister the friends and band members.
The rest just rolled out of my brain at ludicrous speeds – I only spent six months writing
and drawing this first book.”
Even the names of his characters came from O’Malley’s life and interests.
The stand-in character that was based on himself, Scott Pilgrim, was named after a song by a
band he had been obsessed with, Plumtree.
Scott even wears a Plumtree t-shirt in the comic.
Ramona’s name was inspired by another song by a band called Black Francis, and her first
harcut was based on a girl O’Malley had seen at a party one time.
Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life debuted in 2004, and, says O’Malley:
“The next week I had to get a job because I was broke.
Scott Pilgrim wasn’t going anywhere – I was doing indie comics on a microscopic scale.
I quietly went to work and started making [stuff] up for Volume 2.”
Little did O’Malley know that one of the earliest copies of Scott Pilgrim ever sold
wound up travelling across the Atlantic, where it was read by up-and-coming director Edgar
Wright.
This of course, led to a cult classic movie adaptation, and a game by Ubisoft.
Says O’Malley: “I took some of my friends to the Scott
Pilgrim premiere in Toronto and it was so awkward, they left without saying anything
at the end, no comments.
It's a weird life, making stories, especially with Scott Pilgrim because it was so close
to our lives at that time.
We all had different versions of the things we were experiencing.
And to see my version on big screen - it was very uncomfortable for some people.”
So what’s the moral of this story?
Probably that you shouldn’t date anyone named Matthew.
They can’t be trusted.
Woah, hey, hang on a minute there, BretonStripes….My name is Matthew.
Yes…?
And, including me, haven’t YOU also dated three people called Matthew as well?
Um, maybe…
Well in that case, I think the real moral of the story is, stop naming your kids Matthew!
There are enough of us already!
And you’re all evil.