Marc Golsmith's Precious Little Life

On Saturday, my parents gave me the complete Scott Pilgrim series as a present for my birthday. Many only know of this as the title of a movie, but it was adapted from the comic book series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. The first volume, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, immediately had me hooked. Not only is the main character extremely relate-able, the minor characters are what push the storyline along and help Scott Pilgrim through all of his challenges and endeavors. All of the seemingly "minor" characters become their own developed, lovable individual by the end of the series.

What makes this such an awesome series is the writing. Yes, an important part of a comic book is its artwork, but no amount of artistic skill will help a story if the writing is boring, dull, mundane, tedious...I think you get the point. What amazes me about O'Malley is his ability to introduce new characters in each volume and make me want need to learn more about them. Why does he/she act like that? What connection could they have with the other characters? What's their part later in the plot? These questions are usually answered, which is very satisfying as the reader.

Oh, and there's a lot of comedy, action, romance, and...well...everything! The simple art style had me a bit skeptical at first, but this comic proves that fantastic writing triumphs pretty pictures. Plus, the simple art style works for this series. If you have any questions about what I mean, I highly suggest you check it out. I'm really obsessed with this series, so I'll be using it as a topic in one of my future blogs.

To tie this in with AP English more specifically, I find some of the same satisfaction with the minor characters in The Namesake. I wish that the narrator could have focused on Sonia a bit more, but other than that I have no complaints in the character-development aspect of the novel. We got to watch as the Ganguli family grew out of a confused, sometimes lost group of relatives and into a strong family who cares for one another. They had always cared about each other, but in a more forced "I love you people because I have to love you." Gogol finally started showing signs of a more mature adult, which is the one thing I wanted throughout the entire book. I believe that character-development is one of the most important aspects of any piece of literature, and it's refreshing to see such great use of it in both the Scott Pilgrim series and The Namesake.