Fantasy Fiction Tuesday: Saga (2012)

Brian K. Vaughan has quickly become on of my favorite writers currently working in the comic industry. Runaways is still one of my favorite things that Marvel ever published and I really enjoyed Y: The Last Man. With that in mind, it should be obvious that I really love one of his most recent works: Saga. 

Based on ideas Vaughan conceived both as a child and as a parent, Saga is a science fantasy comic that 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. Will they finally find a place where they can live happily ever after, or will they be captured by those who want them dead? 

Like Vaughan's other works, Saga is filled to the brim with creativity. While heavily influenced by Star Wars, Saga takes a very simple story and sets it in an interesting galaxy inhabited by equally interesting creatures. For example, we have a race where each individual has a unique set of wings and they happen to be governed by a TV-headed robots. 

The characters are excellent as well. Vaughan has done a fantastic job at making Alana and Marko feel like a real couple with how they act with each other, how they handle situations, and the things they say to one another. Because they feel like a real couple, you care about these two and want to see them succeed in their endeavors. You also have characters like The Will, a mercenary hired by Marko's race to hunt down the pair, the ghost girl Izabel who is bound to Hazel and acts as a nanny of sorts, the cyclops romance novelist D. Oswald Heist, and a lot more. 

While I wasn't too found of it at first, Fiona Staples' art quickly won me over and I have grown to love it. The sketchy nature of the images threw me off at first, but Staples' work perfectly captures this story and I can't really imagine what it might look like if another artist was at the helm. The art is fluid and lively and helps tell the story beautifully. 

Although the story is kind of simple when you break it down (two lovers running away from two sides who wish to break them up), Saga is still one of the best comics currently being published due to its excellent writing, great art, interesting characters, and the amount of creativity it possesses. I highly recommend you go to your closest comic shop, find the first collected tradeback, and pay the 10 bucks for it. You will not be disappointed.