omalley-seconds

Aside from releasing the above print for Comic-Con, Bryan Lee O’Malley has remained very tight-lipped about his upcoming graphic novel, SECONDS, to be published by Random House in 2013. With his post-Scott Pilgrim profile just growing and growing, the book is sure to be the object of much attention. Thus it was surprising that an interview at the Random House Canada site was posted yesterday with many details on the book. And in fact the interview has since been taken down. But not before every website in town picked up on the details:

“I came up with the general idea for Seconds right after completing the first volume of Scott Pilgrim,” O’Malley says. “I worked in a restaurant in Toronto for a little while to pay the bills while writing the second volume and planning the rest of the series, and I had a few ideas for this other story, a story about a restaurant. So, Seconds is about a restaurant, and the restaurant is called Seconds, and 90 percent of the story takes place within it. Beyond that it’s really hard for me to explain and I’m going to have to work on that so I can talk about it properly when it comes out. But it’s funny and weird and kind of big and crazy despite the mundane setting.”
[snip]
…Seconds is grounded in the reality of this restaurant environment, and I did do plenty of research, so there’s that. It takes place in a town that is like a kinder, gentler fairy tale version of reality. Then it takes off into a story that is very strange, very mental. So it’s a little of both, I guess.  The protagonist, Katie, is a loveable spaz, and she’s in practically every panel; her personality drives the story in a way that’s basically identical to my other work. They’re all very subjective worlds. But this is a new subject, so it’s got its own feeling.”


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1 COMMENT

  1. So the book takes place in a restaurant, is strange/weird, and has a lovable spaz named Katie as its protagonist.

    That is a surprising level of detail?

  2. What does ‘spaz’ mean to North Americans? Because from the way he uses it it must mean something very different from how British use it?

  3. the immediate layman interpretation i can imagine hearing is: “Scott Pilgrim in a restaurant” and people expecting that will be disappointed.
    Personally I say it sounds more like a Gen Y version of Cheers and that sounds more interesting than the former and Scott Pilgrim.

  4. In the US, spaz means a little wild, a little crazy. Hyper. I assume it means something derogatory in British English?

  5. “Spaz” is more akin to “retard” or “doofus” in my neck of the woods. It connotes awkwardness and ineptitude. Doesn’t it?

  6. Ah right, that makes sense – in the UK, it’s an offensive term used to describe disabled people and to be avoided (although retard is seen as equally offensive) – I didn’t think he meant that.