I Read: Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

I Read: Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Comic time again!  This time I decided to read two trade-paperbacks back to back.  This one has quickly become a hit, and may be one day considered a modern classic.  It tells a old story in new ways and has some other worldly imagery to show you the way.  Let's set out on a Saga.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

This is a story about parenting, love, war, politics and a cornucopia of other stuff. It is a bit of a disservice to the book to try and describe it, because in doing so, it may unneccesarily deter you from reading it.  It will sound ridiculous, indeed, but it works, somehow.  The crux of the story is a universe spanning war between a planet and its moon, where one is run by anthropomorphic robots and winged bird-people and the other is a race of horned magic-users.
I told you. Weird.
But in a crazy way, and bringing the wildest visuals of any comic on the rack, this story has begun to make perfect sense.  It has star-crossed lovers and their baby, bounty-hunters tracking them down from both planets, and all of the drama that can come from relationships and conflicts.  It covers class-ism, politics, war, and love within its pages, and yet it never feels overstuffed.

The writing is honest and natural, the characters saying things I can actually hear someone saying.  This goes nicely with the bizarre and nonsensical visuals that make up the comic. That's why it is such a delight.  We get a feast for the eyes with odd and unnatural world that is fascinating,  and we get to explore it with characters that behave like real people.  That, in a nutshell, is why saga works.  If it were all weird, both visually and in the text, It would be a harder sell.  But, by making the language accessible and natural, it allows us to go into this funky universe with our hands clasped firmly with the characters.
When it comes to the art, Fiona Staples brings grease monkeys and tv-faced robot people out of strange pop-art and into colorful life.  I think her great skill is giving personality to these manifestations, so that they feel genuinely alive, and not just goofy doodles with word balloons.
As far as comics that are currently running on the rack, I would recommend getting into this one.  Granted I have only read 12 or so issues in, I still say you should get into it too, and I look forward to continuing the journey.