Saga Compendium 1

If you haven’t read Saga yet, you are absolutely our target demographic. Because while this series set the comic book world on fire, nearly swept the 2013 Eisner Awards, moved hundreds of thousands of books off the shelves, and took permanent residence in the hearts and minds of fans around the globe, comics are still a niche medium. We’re not talking about a big fish in a small pond, this is a megalodon in a swimming pool. Keep scrolling if you want to see my best shot at convincing you to read this now! Not in ten years, after it gets adapted into a blockbuster movie franchise and reduced to “source material” instead of the lightning-in-a-bottle stroke of visual storytelling genius that it is.

This is a story about two (quite literally) star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of an intergalactic civil war, who abandon their posts for the sake of love and hope for a new life. We follow Alana (a foul-mouthed, punk rock, fairy-winged foot soldier) and Marco (a ram-horned wizard pacifist) as they scour the galaxy for a place untouched by war. All this while being hunted by bounty hunters, military police, a spiteful robot monarchy and more. To make matters worse, they’ve just had a kid. Hazel is the first ever interspecies child of her parents’ warring civilizations, Landfall and Wreath. Forever existing at the intersection of everything we wish we could change, coming of age as a refugee on the edge of civilization. Life is so hard. This is a story about a family who loves harder.

We can’t talk about the Saga without talking about the humans who made it, because if souls had fingerprints, theirs would be all over this book. The duo of Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Fiona Staples (artist) have already amassed a total of 12 Eisner Awards and a whopping 17 Harvey Awards on their way to becoming comic book celebrities. The premise isn’t particularly unique. A little bit of Romeo and Juliet, a little bit of Star Wars, against a backdrop of Fantasy vs. Science Fiction tropes. The genius of this book is in its execution. The concept doesn’t make the book feel refreshing and new. What’s refreshing is that we’ve never seen it done like this before. This is Jimmy Hendrix playing the National Anthem, Stockton and Malone running the pick and roll. Vaughan and Staples are virtuosos in their own right.

Fiona Staples is doing a whole lot of things right on the artistic side of things, but I want to focus on one element of her work in particular. This series is home to some of my favorite character designs of all time. They’re incredibly diverse, wildly imaginative, and emotionally resonant. In some instances, the design is a story in-and-of itself. Take Izabel for example, the ghost of a teenage girl who stepped on a landmine decades ago. She sports the familiar beanie and graphic tee combo of a true teenage cynic, but she’s also a floating torso with her ghost intestines dangling where her legs should be. Then there’s The Stalk, galaxy renowned bounty hunter and total sexpot who could’ve easily been drawn in the well-established femme fatal tradition of Elektra, Catwoman, Charlie’s Angels, and countless others. Fortunately for us, that’s not how it went down. The Stalk is more centaur than supermodel. She's half woman, half black widow with no arms, eight legs, eight eyes, and her titties out... Y’all, Ms. Staples is just built different and it doesn’t end there. When you pick up the book, you’ll see for yourself.

Hats off too to Brian K. Vaughan for structuring the world in such a way that not only makes space for Staples’ surrealistic interpretations, but actively encourages and celebrates said interpretations. The two are truly a match made in co-creator heaven, because Vaughan’s dialogue is so earnest and accurate that readers actually feel grounded. Regardless of how bizarre and alien the circumstances, each character feels familiar and unmistakably human. The way he laces this sex-positive space opera with universal truths and heartbreaking poetic epiphanies is offensively good. Every narrative and world-building choice he makes lends itself to this outcome. A simple example is his choice to have Hazel narrate the story from an undisclosed point in the future even though the first scene is Alana giving birth to her. Talk about stage-setting! When I think about all she’s inherited, the weight of a war that has ravaged countless worlds, the audacity of her parents’ love, and all they sacrificed because of it... there is no better lens through which to tell this story. Because hasn’t every single one of us inherited more life than we can fit into this one fragile body? This is just Vaughan doing what Vaughan does. He’s been penning stories I love for over a decade. Undoubtedly, this is only the first of many articles I’ll write about his work.

If you’re still reading and you’ve hung out this long, you might as well just buy the damn thing. It’s for everyone except the bigots. The deluxe hardcover of volume one at instock trades for about 30 bucks. The entire compendium is also available for a few extra bucks, it includes all 54 issues and over 1300 pages packed with gorgeous art, but you'll take a hit on printing quality. After all, that's a lot of pages for a paperback. Pick your own antidote I guess. But I gotta go, because it’s honestly exhausting to care about something as much as I care about this. If you end up reading it, drop a comment and let me know if you agree!

By Nate Olison