Scott Pilgrim #1 by Bryan Lee O'malley

Scott Pilgrim is one of those comics I read multiple times very soon after receiving it, as was Bryan Lee O'Malley's earlier book Lost At Sea, and the majority of comics that have ever been my favourites.. They're quite different stories, but they have in common the endearing characters, the quick humour and the infinite quotability. When I first read Lost At Sea, I knew I had to own it. And Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life I snapped up on sight, read it on the way home from the comic store, got home and settled into my bean bag to read it again.

Scott Pilgrim is just so much fun: the humour, the quirkiness, the very reality of the characters despite their fantastical world. It's mostly normal and charming until you find out why Ramona Flowers, the love interest, has been roller-skating through Scott's dreams. That's when the video game elements get introduced. In order to date Ramona, Scott must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. Why does she have seven evil ex-boyfriends? We don't know. But we'll find out. The finale of the first trade is a battle between Scott and the first evil ex-boyfriend that interrupts his band's gig, a cross between a video game, a musical cartoon and ... well, at the end of it, he gets coins. What else do you need to know?

His band is called 'The Sex Bob-omb', and is 'kind of crappy', which makes it cool and not pretensious. O'Malley even includes chords to the band's songs, so that you too can despair over losing your really cool job in a nouveau-mexican restaurant. And if you can't play the guitar, there's always the recipe for vegan shepard's pie. Scott Pilgrim has something for everyone - romance, scandals, music and fight scenes. It's awesome.