Order
“Saga, Volume 1” HERE
Order
“Saga, Volume 2” HERE
Read
a Preview HERE
ABOUT SAGA:
Saga is an epic space
opera/fantasy comic book series created by writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona
Staples, published monthly by Image Comics. The series is heavily
influenced by Star Wars, and based on
ideas Vaughan conceived as both a
child and as a parent. It depicts two lovers from long-warring extraterrestrial
races, Alana and Marko, fleeing authorities from both
sides of a galactic war as they struggle to care for their newborn daughter, Hazel, who occasionally narrates the
series.
ANALYSIS: You may have heard of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples' Saga if you followed the Hugo Awards, as it took the prize for Best Graphic Story. Honestly, I don't follow many graphic novels, but for Volume
2 I marked the release on my calendar.
If
you're not normally a graphic novel reader, Saga
is for you.
If
you are a regular graphic novel
reader and are tired of the same old, Saga
is also for you.
Really
Saga is for everyone, unless you
prefer your stories without things like profanity and sex, because those do
happen in Saga. Right from the
beginning, so you know what you're getting into (I mean, not really, but at
least a sense of the tone) from the get-go.
Saga is some sort of cross
between space opera and epic fantasy. The narrator is telling the story of her
history, which is a framing voice that would normally annoy me, but the story
is so good that I don't even care.
We
have the multiple POVs characteristic of an epic, the sprawling scope and
travel between worlds. We have magic powered by secrets, an organic spaceship
that follows thoughts when it feels like it. We have Lying Cat, who is the best
ever, and we have a royal family with TV boxes for heads. We have a trashy
romance novel serving as catalyst and framing device for one of the most daring
coups in the galaxy.
The
story is fundamentally optimistic, but it does not shy away from dealing with
the cost of war. We have characters with PTSD, characters we love who die and
leave loved ones behind to try to cope, and a ghost babysitter who's missing
her lower half because of this ongoing war.
Saga is at turns, and
sometimes at once, beautiful and horrifying. This is not a coming of age
narrative, nor a defeat all-the-bad-guys type of story. It's much more complicated
than that, and even the “bad guys” have sympathetic and complex motivations.
This
is one of the most innovative and poignant things out there right now. Check
out Saga.
ABOUT BRIAN K. VAUGHAN:
Brian K. Vaughan is the Eisner Award-winning and New York Times-bestselling writer of Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, and
Pride of Baghdad. Vaughan lives in Los Angeles, where he
worked as a writer, story editor and producer of the hit television series Lost during seasons three
through five. He is currently the showrunner and executive producer of the CBS
TV series Under
The Dome.
ABOUT
FIONA STAPLES:
A
graduate of the Alberta College of Arts & Design, Fiona Staples is a critically-acclaimed artist of such comic books
as Mystery Society and North 40 for which she was nominated for
an Eisner Award. In 2013, Fiona received Harvey Awards for Best Artist and Best Colourist for the Eisner, Harvey & Hugo Award-winning
comic book series Saga.
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2 comments:
Awesome! Glad you guys have started reviewing graphic novels! Keep it up! :)
I really loved the first volume of Saga, and am looking forward to reading the second. I think it does well at making the anything goes madness of space opera strange again, instead of recreating images and ideas that were once strange and original but have become familiar through use.