This series will kick your ass and collect the coins. Written and designed by Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim is a self-referential Canadian comic about one affable slacker’s passion for video games, live music, and sleep. Oh yes, and fight scenes. It has some pretty epic fight scenes. Sharing a dank basement apartment, our unemployed Scott Pilgrim is finally coming to terms with an emotionally messy breakup. For the first time in months, Scott is feeling better. His band Sex Bob-Omb sucks a lot less lately; he just remembered the cheat code for Sonic 3; and he is dating a 17 year-old girl named Knives Chau. No big deal. Then one afternoon, Scott falls asleep and dreams about Ramona Flowers. As this American Amazon.com delivery girl rollerblades through his subspace highways, readers are certain that Scott Pilgrim’s precious little life will never be the same. But in order to date this subspace dream girl, Scott must also do battle with The League of Ramona’s Evil Ex-Boyfriends.

Don’t worry though. He only has to fight them sequentially. To say that this is the extent of the Scott Pilgrim plot would be both accurate and misleading. Although nothing much happens through the course of this volume, it is the charming way that O’Malley weaves us through the nothing that provides this series with its awkward intimacies and its genuine heart. In the end, the normally listless Scott is forced into action. Whether he reluctantly breaks up with Knives, hesitantly plays the next big gig, or eventually confronts Evil Ex-Boyfriend number one, Scott is slowly showing his worth. Then when he finally bests his foes, they leave behind some well-earned coins – Which is lucky, since he is still kind of poor.