The Bookseller (the main UK book trade journal) reports that Fourth Estate has picked up the rights to publish UK editions of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. Its a bit of an unusual departure for the respected publisher in one way, as they don’t have a long history of publishing graphic novels. But I know FE has had a good reputation over the last couple of decades of picking up interesting writers and supporting them and getting them noticed, so perhaps its not that big a departure.
“It’s really about a bunch of friends in their 20s hanging out, falling in love and playing in bands. It’s very smart, funny and pop culturally literate,” Fourth Estate’s Mark Richards explains the attraction, also noting that the much-talked about film adaptation will also spark ever increasing interest. I suspect this may not have so much immediate impact on specialised comics shops – we’ve all had access to the original Oni Press Scott Pilgrim books for years, after all – but it should certainly serve to bring the series to wider attention in mainstream bookstores, hopefully boosting interest in comics in general among those new readers, something the film should also do (given the buzz around it already – this month’s Empire had a quick look at it in their movies to watch for next year feature).
Mind you, I’m not so sure about Richards’ later quote that “It’s not your typical comic book… It was very funny, well observed and well drawn.” Since there is such a huge variety of comics, many ‘well observed and well drawn’ I’m tempted to chalk that comment up to a lack of familiarity with the medium (since it seems to me to infer that most comics are lacking in these qualities). But then the more interest titles like O’Malley’s generate with mainstream publishers and readers the more likely we are to break down that lack of familiarity and the more likely they are to embrace comics culture. Anyway, its damned good news for the seemingly all conquering O’Malley and Scott Pilgrim. The Fourth Estate editions are expected to start appearing in the UK early in 2010.
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