"There are many ways to communicate. And drawing comics is mine. The first memory I have of it is when I was eight years old. I scribbled in my notebooks non-stop and then showed them to my teacher, who instead of scolding me, encouraged me to continue. And it was clear to me that I was going to do it. What I didn't imagine was that I was going to achieve it professionally," confesses Bryan Lee O'Malley to La Vanguardia. The cartoonist is visiting the city of wonders these days, because is one of the artists invited to the Manga Barcelona show, which started yesterday and continues until Sunday at Fira Gran Via, in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat.
The 24 years were decisive. “I saw everything clearer,” she admits. It was at this age when she published her first book, Lost at Sea (2003), an intimate story that focuses on Raleigh, a young woman trapped on a road trip along with three schoolmates whom she barely knew. known. "When it was published, I showed it to my friends, but it was such a personal comic that their reaction was not one of hilarity and I told myself: I'm going to work on something that makes them laugh." Then came the series that catapulted him to fame: Scott Pilgrim.
Scott is a musician living in Toronto. He doesn't make a very good living, but he doesn't care. He is in love with Ramona Flowers and, for him, that is enough. He soon discovers that, beyond his weapons of seduction, his beloved has special abilities, as do her seven ex-partners, who in the comics become supervillains. So, if he wants their relationship to come to fruition, Pilgrim has no choice but to fight them.
Under this premise, O'Malley published six volumes between 2004 and 2010, which became especially popular when they made the leap to the big screen by filmmaker Edgar Wright, with Michael Cera playing the character. “With the film everything took a leap. The trailer came out in March 2010 and, from that moment on, my life changed completely. My name and my character were on the internet and everywhere. There was an official premiere in Toronto and I remember my friends having to leave the movie theater. But not because they didn't like it, but because that environment with movie stars overwhelmed them. Me too, but what could I do. I confess that I'm still not used to it. “I’m just a simple guy who likes to draw.”
Overnight, the series went from being “small and independent” to becoming a cult work with capital letters. The Spanish filmmaker Abel Góngora has just recovered it and, with the help of the author himself, has transformed it into an anime, which premiered in November on Netflix and which has the same cast as the previous film, although this time on a vocal level. . "I'm very satisfied with the result. Plus, it's available in fifteen languages, so it has traveled much faster than any of my books.”
There are several comics that he released later: Seconds, Snotgirl..., “but people always end up asking what happened to Scott. And I do not care. He is cute. Who knows if one day I will rescue it in a new book. It is not something that I have planned, but, if it happens, the plot will change, because the person behind it will no longer be a twenty-something, but someone older,” he concludes.
