Bryam Lee O'Malley
Oni Press
We rarely get any western comics that deal with relationships that are actually worth a purchase. I generally don’t even seek these books out. I’m more of a capes and cowls or crime book kinda’ guy. The last book I read that even comes close to Sott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life is the
Boondocks comic strip compilation (All the Rage).
This book is a bit deceiving. It starts off like an average true-life story. Scott’s a 23 year old kid who’s living off of his gay friend Wallace. He’s in a band called Sex Bob-Omb (every gamer should get that refrence). He is inappropriately dating a 17 year old girl named Knives, and falls in love with an older “Amazon.ca” delivery girl.
Yes -- this book takes place in Canada (Toronto), ‘ey.”
It all really just seems like it’s based in reality and nothing really preternatural will happen. For the most part, that’s exactly it. It’s only ‘till you get to the end that you’ll realize why I say this book is deceitful and when the premise of these books is revealed. That’s not a bad thing though. It’s actually my favorite part of the comic. The amazing thing is that Brayam's writing makes even the most ridiculous moments seem normal.
The characters aren’t the most unique, but they’re easy to fall in love with. Scott is a pretty known caricature. He’s the upbeat, lazy, semi-dumb nerdy guy who, while confident, has aspirations that seem impossible for him to reach. His friends are equally typical, but there’s a charm that comes from people you can relate to or feel you know. They’re pretty well written, and they’re not as silly as Scott.
The art is very minimalist. It’s in that black and white manga style. Bayam draws and writes everything himself, and while it isn’t exciting, it is aesthetically pleasing. It did find it difficult to tell the difference between “Young Neil” and Scott at first though.
It’s pretty easy to pass this book up. It doesn’t seem to stick out, but like the cliché saying goes, “you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.” It’s not the deepest comic out there, but damn is it fun. I say you should pick it up. You may end up falling in love like I have.