Scott Pilgrim is a six-part graphic novel series written and illustrated by Canadian author Bryan Lee O’Malley.  The novels follow the adventures of a 24-year-old Toronto resident named Scott Pilgrim as he attempts to win the heart of a rollerblading Amazon.ca delivery girl named Ramona Flowers by defeating her seven evil ex-boyfriends.

The plot sounds fairly contrived, and it’s hard to argue against that assessment.  However O’Malley quickly finds his stride in a strange sort of alt-lit/manga mashup.
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Those artistic types who are also fortunate enough to possess some degree of intellect seem fond of employing mysticism when describing elements of quantum physics. This makes a certain level of sense:

I would not be this angry if I had this jetpack.

When describing the unknown, people get reverent

• As Neil deGrasse Tyson posited in 2006, whenever the inquisitive mind reaches the end of what it is believes itself capable of understanding, it seems to reach for God. Quantum physics is often beyond the reach of those who study it professionally, so artists finding commonality between quantum physics and Native American mysticism isn’t a stretch.

Some mystic systems weren’t a bad idea

• Certain brands of mysticism are simple diagrams that are meant to be rough, poetic maps of the processes of life; a sort of mixed psychology/philosophy/theology with the occasional rotten mushroom or bowl of hallucinogenic pee thrown in.

Mysticism has been the driving force behind several creative movements over the past fifty years

• Thanks a lot, hippies.

Jeff Smith is following a path fairly consistent with this in his new series RASL. Issue 4 is out and will instantly confound and frustrate you if you haven’t read the first three, so do it immediately. There’s even a collected 3-volume book to get you started.
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Some time ago, I wrote a post about how I was going to try to dabble a little in the DC universe and see if there is anything interesting on that side of the big 2. I am happy to say that my experiment has gone quite well so far. There have been a few “mehs” but more “awesomes” than anything else. So, let me update you a little on my impressions with DCU so far.

Batman

I first want to start with Batman. I started reading Batman with the beginning of the acclaimed “R.I.P.” arc. Seriously, Grant Morrison is kicking some ass with Batman right now. Of all of the DC stuff I have read so far, Batman has been the most engaging. I look forward to reading the new issue each month as it comes out. I am happy to say the quality of this arc has inspired me to go back and seek out old Batman issues. Hopefully I will have time to read some other Batman stuff in the near future.

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Today, I decided to begin reading comics from DC. It is something that I have been considering for some time, but until today, hadn’t really considered fully. I was reading IGN’s Ultimate Reader’s Guide 1.0 today and the first installment of this series was an introduction to the DC Universe. I decided that this is finally a good time to get started, now that I have someone telling me how to begin.

With that, I decided to not go overboard and am only going to focus on a couple of series to start. I took IGN’s advice and am going to begin reading Action Comics, All-Star Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Trinity, and possibly JLA and JSA. I am also going to try reading Final Crisis and (perhaps foolishly) do this without reading anything that leads up to Final Crisis.

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