Bryan Lee O'Malley and Oni Press have quite a little hit on their hands with the six volumes of Scott Pilgrim. Over six years, they've sold printed over one million copies of the trade paperback books, and that's no small feat.
Along the way, the book was made into one hell of a well done feature film, and won lots of awards, including Eisner, Harvey, Joe Shuster, and National Cartoonists Society Reuben awards.
Calling in from his superyacht off the coast of some tropical paradise, O'Malley said, “All this for a little black & white book," and "it's an amazing success story for indie comics and I can't thank the fans enough.”
A lot of fans saw the lackluster ticket sales of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World as some sort of failure on the part of comics or the book itself, but to do that is to ignore the incredible and unparalleled success of the book itself. We haven't seen success like this, and from an indie book no less, in a long time.
I'm guessing it won't be too long before O'Malley swears off every working with anyone in comics again, and gives a dozen or so "last interviews ever" where he decries the state of a comic book industry he has no familiarity with over and over. Yes, that's how successful Scott Pilgrim is.
The challenge for both Oni Press and O'Malley is now coming up with a follow up. On the one hand, I do not envy them the task, and on the other hand, I can't wait to see what comes along.
UPDATE: Our bad, they printed over 1 million, not sold over 1 million yet, but come on, you know what we'll be talking about in a couple of weeks…
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Tremendous accomplishment.
Good for the comic book landscape as a whole.
id like to thank iFanboy for bringing Scott Pilgrim into my life
I’d like to thank Edgar wright for getting me to want to know bryan Lee omalley! Now if only I could afford comics AND feed my kids….
I definitely came late to the Scott Pilgrim party, I do love it though.
Still good news.
I’d never even heard of it until you guys. O’Malley owes you some credit for getting the Scott Pilgrim ball rolling, lo, all those many years ago.
But Josh, did you call and thank him?
Some douchebag (who totally claimed hating comics in all shapes and forms) was totally making a Scott Pilgrim reference, now the series just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I suppose that means it’s time for me to move on to praise other indie titles that don’t have the spotlight.
That’s ridiculous.
Thats so bad ass GO!!! scott pilgrim
It’s no Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but it is one heck of an indie success story.