Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour Vol. 6

Just a couple of weeks before the feature film hits theaters, we finally get our mitts on the sixth (and final) chapter in the Scott Pilgrim saga.

For those who haven't read it, the series revolves around a young man in love. Scott is mostly without direction - he plays in a band, mooches off an assortment of interesting friends, and seems to lead a normal existence - until he falls in love with Ramona Flowers.

But there's an epic struggle standing in the way of true romance. To win her heart, he must defeat Ramona's evil ex-lovers. As this volume begins, Scott has one last opponent to defeat - but events have conspired to leave him lost and aimless, without any hope of defeating his final opponent.

Of course, as this volume's title indicates, that's hardly the end of the story.

The saga of Scott has been a lot of fun to follow, as the stories are a great blend of humor, romance, rock and roll, high-powered action and cultural references all framed by terrific characters and real-world (ish) backdrops.

As a writer, Brian O'Malley has the chops to mix together all these elements (plus a few I've left out) into a compelling and entertaining story with lots of surprises along the way.

As an artist, he has an original, energetic, cartoonish style that somehow mixes videogame elements with manga influences. The end product is, well, epic in scope.

It will be interesting to see how well the movie (which arrives in theaters on August 13) holds up to the graphic novels. The trailers certainly look promising.

But whether the film succeeds or not, the six volumes of work by O'Malley are instant classics and well worth tracking down.

Highly recommended!

Grade: A