MIKE: As far as Ramona goes, she might have fewer redeeming qualities than Scott. She’s not mysterious, she’s hiding her past. She’s hypocritical (“We didn’t make out much”) when it comes to cheating, and it sounds like she’s broken more hearts than even Scott. I don’t know, maybe these two are perfect for each other.
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CHRISTINE: Kim, Ramona and Lisa’s hairstyles are way too similar in this volume. Was this done on purpose? I learned in some playwriting class that if you name characters similiarly –e.g. Melody and Melanie — it had better be meaningful. O’Malley can clearly draw women with other shapes, sizes and features (Stacey, Roxanne [who is not a boy]). Are the women in Scott’s life supposed to serve as mirrors/foils to one another?
We’ve seen panels interact with the story and characters — via meta comments, explanations, character bios — but I feel like Vol. 5 gives characters the power to interact with the panels. Two instances in particular come to mind.
1. Halfway through the book, when Roxie is introduced as “ROXANNE RICHTER. The 4th evil ex-boyfriend,” Roxanne snarls in response, “I’m not a boy!”
2. In Scott’s second Zelda-style dream, Roxanne seems to slash through panels, attacking not just Scott as a person, but Scott as a character in this strip.
In a sense, Roxie gets it together by exhibiting this control over her situations and yet, after all is said and done, she totally dies.
MIKE: The characters have on several occasions referenced the volumes themselves. O’Malley doesn’t go overboard with fourth-wall-breaking, but it certainly happens from time to time.
DOUGLAS: See also that excellent interview with O’Malley over at Comics Alliance today (warning! spoilers for vol. 6!): the narrative voice isn’t really an omniscient narrator so much as it is Scott’s view of his own life.
GRAEME: This really is the “Everything comes together to give everyone false hope” volume, isn’t it? It continues the growth of Scott that started, really, in volume 3, but he’s clearly not there yet. It’s a book about the way people think that everything will be great at the start of a new relationship, filled with excitement and optimism at having overcome the obstacles so far, but not entirely aware of what’s still to come (I love Ramona’s “I’m not telling” when Scott finally admits that he doesn’t know her age, and asks her. Yes, it’s a punchline, but it’s also a clue about everything that’s about to happen in the next volume). But, as much as there may be all manner of happy endings to see (and color! Which, as Mike says, really does make all the difference – I wonder if we’ll end up with a colorized series of reissues, a la Bone, at some point?), there’s something less satisfying about Gets It Together than Vs. The Infinite Sadness for me, and I’m not quite sure why.
(Also fun, in terms of foreshadowing: Lisa smoking, and Scott’s confusion over that, because it challenges his moral absolute about smoking being inherently evil.)
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Artwise, this is the sharpest book yet – don’t I say that every time? Sorry, readers – and Bryan’s art starts to take a blocky stylization that reminds me more than anything of Jamie Hewlett’s Gorillaz work. But the visuals have also started to clarify in other ways: There’s a lot more space, and the eye flows more easily from panel to panel, without details that aren’t necessary there to clutter things up. As Scott’s world becomes more complicated, the art simplifies and becomes much clearer.
EVAN: Yeah, going back to this one, I was shocked how much I was reminded of Tank Girl.
I know everyone mentioned Vol. 3 as the one where they thought everything gelled for them, but I held off on jumping on that bandwagon because I clearly remember Gets It Together being the one where things, um, came together technically. The character guide at the beginning isn’t just helpful; it also shows how O’Malley nailed the visual differentiators for characters that got confused with each other in the first few volumes. Maybe it was the color making my eyes pop out or how amazingly more assured O’Malley’s line became or the comedic timing feeling much sharper. I dunno. [Slight personal note: the Washington Post blurb on the back is from a capsule review I wrote way back when. When I saw that, I pulled a sword out of MY chest.]
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Seriously, though, if Infinite Sadness was the one where stuff got mature, then Gets It Together is the one where stuff gets nuanced. Like Graeme noted with her smoking, Lisa’s the kind of ambiguous character that probably most mirrors real life so far in the Pilgrim-verse. She’s not easily classifiable as strictly good or bad. Similarly, Knives’ dad starts out being this ominous threat, but all he really needs is an honest account of what happened between Knives and Scott. And Scott’s hazy Superman III moment where he glimpses his d-bag doppelganger signifies the whole “good and bad in everybody” epiphany. Related to those bits of nuance, the spectre of fully realized, grown-up possibility looms large in this one. From Kim’s moving out to Stephen Stills’ “You have a home studio?!!” to Scott’s “I can do anything!! Just give me a chance!”, the characters are realizing that they can have so much more than their precious little lives. These beats contribute to the feel-good vibe of the book immensely.
And maybe because of the heat wave riff running through the book, this is the sexiest of the Pilgrim books, too. It’s giggle-inducing to think of sexual allure in something so cartoony, but the scene where Lisa’s giving Scott the ol’ come hither ripples with tension.
Also, the fights in this one flow much more smoothly than the ones before.
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