How To Re-Read Scott Pilgrim

The best way to re-read the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels is to do it over the course of the entire year, loosely in step with the calendar events within the books, while residing in the city of Toronto. For extra points, try to visit the locations in the book!

tl;dr

Chronology

• Chapter 1 kicks it off. Start a re-read sometime in March or early April. Chapter 4 takes place during “like, April”, and the next few chapters take place over a few subsequent days. Read until the end of Chapter 5, which finishes Book 1.
• Chapter 6 (the first of Book 2) is a flashback, feel free to tack it onto Chapter 5, tack it onto Chapter 7, or read it somewhere in the middle of them as a snack
• Chapters 7 still feels firmly like April, but Chapter 8 starts to feel like May! The trees have leaves now, and the characters are wearing light jackets. Try reading Chapters 8, 9, 10, during the April-May transition
• Chapter 11 has the “first real t-shirt day of the year” which, to me, is optimistically early May. This wraps up Book 2. Book 3 picks up immediately afterwards. Chapters 12, 13, 14 are all close together
• Chapter 15 is a little later, maybe mid-to-late May is a good time for this
• Chapter 16 feels even warmer, characters are wearing t-shirts. June? Keep reading Chapter 17, and 18 which ends with “next up, summer!” No more Scott Pilgrim until true summer
• Chapter 19 starts on a beach. Scott says that it’s been “almost two months” since he head-butted Todd, which means we are probably sometime in July by now, especially since one of the panels declares the start of August. You can rip through Chapters 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 in one huge sitting because the next chapter (in the next book) kicks off on September 27th!
• Between Chapter 25 and 26 there is a small interlude for Scott’s birthday on September 27th. Just a snack, unfortunately, because the next chapter is a month later
• Chapter 26 strongly implies it’s slightly after Halloween because Halloween is mentioned, and they’re at a Dia de Los Muertos party, which is usually the start of November. So, start Chapter 26 at the start of November. Wait until mid-November to read Chapter 27 (which takes place around November 14th). Keep reading Chapter 28, 29, and 30
• Chapter 30 is definitely the late fall, since the Chaos Theatre is opening “Next Spring”
• Chapter 31 looks suspiciously like late November or early December to me, weather-wise. There’s a scene at the Dundas St. bus terminal at ~5pm and it’s still kind of light out, and then Book 5 ends!
• Chapter 32 is later than before, and seems to be the next year. There are many hints that it’s early spring. Wallace tells Scott that “it’s been months”. Knives Chau says that she’s graduating in three months, and confirms that they met on her birthday the previous year (which was in March-ish). Read over the course of March and April, and keep reading Chapter 33, and 34. According to the calendar, you can simultaneously start a fresh re-read!
• Chapter 35 is canonically on May 1st, because that’s when Envy’s album release happens according to an in-comic billboard. 35, 36, 37 and the first half of Chapter 38 are the big battle, so read them all together! Halfway through Chapter 38 there is a time-skip that ends during much warmer weather, so stop before then
• Read the second half of Chapter 38 sometime in late May or early June, and … it’s the last one! Your re-read is tragically over, but happily you have started another re-read