Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World starring Michael Cera and directed by Edgar Wright will be unleashed on the world this August. And we’ve been lucky enough to chat with creator Bryan Lee O’Malley.

Currently going under the moniker Busiest Man In The Universe™, O’Malley is not only finishing off the sixth and final volume in the phenomenally successful (and awesome) Pilgrim novels, he’s also been rigorously involved in the film adaptation... and is moving house. Yes, all at the same time.

So yeah, he’s mega busy, but the lovely chap agreed to a grilling about his knock-out creation. What does he think of adap helmer Edgar Wright? What are his inspirations? And is the movie version going to live up to the comics?

Read on to find out…

How did you create Scott Pilgrim the character?
The initial inspiration was a song called ‘Scott Pilgrim’ sung by a band from outback Nova Scotia that I used to really like called Plumtree.

So I got to thinking about the song, and the band had broken up and I wanted to do a little tribute to them. I thought, ‘Who is this character? Who would this character be?’ And at the same time I’ve always played video games and read a lot of Japanese comics, things like that, so I wanted to kind of bring those things into my world.

Were there any other influences in there?
Yeah I was influenced by a couple of Japanese comics. The two biggest ones were Beck. Beck was about a struggling rock band, and then also Nana which is like a girl’s comic, it was kind of more real-life.

It was about twentysomethings kind of just living their lives, trying to hold down jobs. I was going through that period in my own life, so it was kind of eye-opening to see comics with that subject matter.

Scott Pilgrim grounds itself in reality…
Right, yeah that was definitely the goal. There are so many stories and comics that are pure fantasy, and I like that, and I want to do stuff like that, but I also want to ground it in my own reality.

The first book spends time building the characters and creating their lives then it flips out at the end…
I mean it’s a luxury of working in that format, the sort of longer graphic novel format, rather than doing it serialised. So I could really pull out this mundane world, and then turn it around at the end.

Who is Scott Pilgrim aimed at?
As it’s gone on, obviously I’m getting older and the fan base is still there. It’s definitely the teens and people in their early twenties, people who are experiencing that or who are looking forward - or not really looking forward - to that age.

You’ve ended up sharing someone’s bed/flat then?
I have, yeah, that was taken from my own experience. [laughs] I had a gay roommate who was very belligerent and often had his pants off… sorry, pants is different in the UK! Trousers. And I also, on a separate occasion I shared a futon with another man for six months.

Scott’s love interest Ramona Flowers is very much the manic pixie girl…
Yeah definitely a little bit. Maybe in the beginning she was more that, but I’ve definitely tried to give her more depth as I went along. Yeah, you know, she’s definitely like the ultimate girl, the unattainable girl.

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