The author of graphic novels about a slacker in a Toronto garage band is being honoured with a postage stamp. Brian Lee O’Malley, creator of the Scott Pilgrim series, is one of six graphic novelists in Canada Post’s second group of graphic novelists who’ve received this honour.
O’Malley was born in London, Ontario in 1979 to a mother with Korean ancestry and a father with French-Canadian and Irish ancestry. He lived for several years in Toronto, drawing upon those experiences in creating Scott Pilgrim, who dedicates himself to defeating his new girlfriend’s evil exes.
“I’m a quiet, thoughtful, sensitive man and Scott Pilgrim is this brash fool,” O’Malley told CBC Radio One Bookends host Mattea Roach last year. “I wanted to have a character that would do all the things that I would never do or that would think things I would never think.”
The series led to the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a video game, and an animated series.
Graphic novelists leave their mark
The new Canada Post stamp series also honours Kate Beaton, Jimmy Beaulieu, Guy Delisle, Julie Doucet, and Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.
Beaton is best known for the autobiographical Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands. In 2023, it was the first graphic novel to win the CBC Reads competition.
Beaulieu is a Montreal-based graphic novelist who has produced many books, including Jardin des complexes, Rôles de composition, and Non-aventures : planches à la première personne. Delisle shares his travel experiences through cartoons, including visits to North Korea, Myanmar, and the Middle East. The latter led to his award0winning Chroniques de Jérusalem.
Meanwhile, Doucet is the author of Journal (2004; 365 Days, 2007). She won the Grand Prix for lifetime achievement at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. And Yahgulanaas is a highly regarded multimedia artist as well as the author of Flight of the Hummingbird, RED: A Haida Manga, and JAJ: A Haida Manga.
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