Bryan Lee O'Malley Profile

Bryan Lee O’Malley

February 21, 1979

Cartoonist

Scott Pilgrim, Lost at Sea

Bryan’s main claim to fame is the Scott Pilgrim series of OGN that infuse traditional comic book elements with heavily influenced manga styles. The series has almost taken on a life of its own and become a franchise that includes a major motion picture and video game based off the work.

Bryan hates, "…prequels and after-the-fact origin stories. They are the worst thing." He enjoys the mystery of not knowing all the details of the characters past. Plan on never seeing a prequel for Scott Pilgrim.

Bryan Lee O’Malley – radiomaru.com
Scott Pilgrim – www.scottpilgrim.com

Bryan Lee O’Malley was born on February 21, 1979 in London, Ontario, Canada. Growing up, he realized that he his love of creating comics was the only thing in his life that he continually wanted to do, and decided to make it his vocation. He has pursued other interests such as film making in college, and creating music under the band name Kupek, a band in which there is only one member, namely O’Malley. He has released seven albums since 2002, most of which can be downloaded for free from his personal site.

O'Malley started his main career in comics by doing illustrating and lettering work for Oni Press, then went on to release his first OGN, Lost at Sea, also through Oni. These set the stage for his next project, which would become his main vocation for the next six years.

Scott Pilgrim was that next project, a character he named after a song of the same name by a Nova Scotia band called Plumtree. The series was heavily influenced by a manga series called Beck, which is also about a group of kids starting a band. O’Malley stated in his Livejournal, "I feel like BECK (the band), doing my s***ty comics for my small fanbase, trying to one day compete with world-class comics like BECK (the manga)!" That small fanbase quickly grew into a full time gig as it was highly praised by critics and fans alike. The culmination of the series saw the final volume released, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, alongside the motion picture Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World collecting the entire six volumes into a two hour presentation. There is also a video game being released based on the series as well.

For what O’Malley has planned for the future, that he cannot divulge, "I'll never tell. If there's one thing I'm learning, it's to not tell anyone anything about what I'm doing. It just creates weird and false expectations."

Currently he resides in Los Angeles with his wife and fellow cartoonist Hope Larson.