When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe. From New York Times bestselling writer Brian K. Vaughan (Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina) and critically acclaimed artist Fiona Staples (Mystery Society, North 40), Saga is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in this sexy, subversive drama for adults. This specially priced volume collects the first six issues of the smash-hit series The Onion A.V. Club calls "the emotional epic Hollywood wishes it could make." Voted one of the top graphic novels of the year by the NYT, IGN, the Examiner, and SF Weekly. Voted Best Comic of the year by MTV Geek and Best New Series by Paradox Comics. Voted a finalist in the GoodReads Best GN of 2012 contest.
Saga, Vol. 1
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More About the Author
Brian K. Vaughan is the Eisner Award-winning writer of Y: THE LAST MAN, EX MACHINA, RUNAWAYS, and PRIDE OF BAGHDAD. His newest work, with artist/co-creator Fiona Staples, is SAGA, an ongoing sci-fi/fantasy series from Image Comics that The Onion's A.V. Club called, "the emotional epic Hollywood wishes it could make." Vaughan lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a writer and producer on various film and tv projects, including three seasons on the hit series LOST.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For many years, Brian K. Vaughan has been dazzling us and making our heads spin with his wordsmithing and storytelling on some of the greatest comics of the last decade or so. Books like Y: THE LAST MAN, EX MACHINA and his initial run on RUNAWAYS are the stuff that comic book readers' dreams are made of. Alas, since the devastating finale of EX MACHINA, he took some well-deserved time off, but when he announced a new creator-owned series for Image Comics that was apparently going to be "STAR WARS meets ROMEO AND JULIET meets GAME OF THRONES", people's heads started to explode with anticipation. But would it live up to the inevitable hype surrounding a work by Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples?
Short answer: Abso-freakin'-loutely.
SAGA is the type of space opera that only someone like Vaughan could do, and do with enough smarts, fun, emotion, action and surprises to keep the audience wrapped around his finger. It's the story of Marko and Alana, a pair of star-cross'd lovers from different sides of warring planets. Alana is from the planet Landfall, a place of great technological advancement, and their planet is in constant conflict with the magic-wielders of that planet's moon Wreath, where Marko hails from. Marko was captured after a battle with Landfall where he threw down his arms because he is a self-proclaimed conscientious objector, and he was imprisoned, where Alana, who was also somewhat disgraced in her military service, is his prison guard. Fast-forward several months, and Alana is giving birth to their child, Hazel, the actual narrator of the series. The very beginning of the series is dedicated to her actually giving birth, and it's hilarious and beautiful and suspenseful since they are being pursued from both sides of this galaxy-wide conflict. In the midst of their pursuit, where they are in search of a legendary (and perhaps fictional) Rocketship Forest so that they might get off the planet with their new baby, we are introduced to all sorts of new, strange, frightening and wonderfully rich characters. We meet Prince Robot IV, a humanoid being with what appears to be an old-fashioned TV set for a head, who is the one primarily tasked with the elimination of Marko and Alana. We also meet two of the bounty hunters that have are in a bidding war to get the fugitives, The Will and The Stalk. The Stalk is a somewhat frightening-looking spider-like alien who carries weapons in all of her additional appendages, and The Will is humanoid, but has with him what might be one of my favorite characters EVER and that is the character of Lying Cat, who is a talking cat that can tell when someone is lying. Also characters in their own right are a legendary group of terrifying killers called The Horrors, which, like all characters in this book aren't quite what they seem.
Alana is much more prone to using violent means to protect her husband and new baby, but Marko is hesitant, despite that he carries a sword chained inside its sheath that he has vowed never to unsheath. Prince Robot IV is less than pleased with the notion of having to track this fugitive couple down, feeling that it is beneath his aristocratic sensibilities. The Stalk and The Will obviously have a romantic/sexual past but both of them are fearsome, amoral killers, or as one might think, until The Will goes to the pleasure planet of Sextillion and his unethical code is put to the test.
Vaughan's writing is as strong and natural as it's ever been, and he uses a great deal of English-Speaking slang, because... why not? Whatever language these different races might be speaking to each other is still going to be translated to our language, and Vaughan, if nothing else, is masterful at the art of language. Each issue moves along at an incredibly even pace, allowing for moments of great suspense and violence, but also allowing for great humor, character beats and texture to the worlds around them. If there is a science fiction-fantasy comic out there that is so adept at creating its own universe, I have yet to read it.
Fiona Staples' art is an excellent balance of extreme detail to abstract lines and shading. It is exactly the feel that the book demands, and once again, Vaughan has found the perfect person to illustrate his work. Her amazeballs work is absolutely suited to this book and is absolutely one of those artists that demands following in this and other titles.
The thing that this book may bring up for some people is an age-old argument about Art vs. Pornography. The book as a whole is certainly not for the kiddies, but it's hardly packed with sexual activity. However, there is a book in this collection that broaches that argument because it does take place on the planet of Sextillion and as The Will goes walking down its streets, there are several rather explicit sexual acts going on in the background. The general way of defining "pornography" is showing sexual acts that are designed to titillate or create a general state of sexual arousal. That is very much not the case here. This is not a comic that is somehow designed to sexually excite its readers, but I can imagine perhaps a less open-minded reader or someone who is new to reading mature-themed comics being a more than a little taken aback by some of those panels. But really, it's parsed down to no more than three or four panels. It's not gratuitous and it's not in your face, but it's there, so new readers may want to be aware. That's all I really wanted to say about that.
When it all boils down to how this book is and how it makes you feel, it's an beautiful and massively entertaining book that keeps you invested in all of its characters, creates a incredibly rich universe for these characters to exist in, never fails to please the eye or the intellect, and really, like Hazel, SAGA is something of a small miracle.
Short answer: Abso-freakin'-loutely.
SAGA is the type of space opera that only someone like Vaughan could do, and do with enough smarts, fun, emotion, action and surprises to keep the audience wrapped around his finger. It's the story of Marko and Alana, a pair of star-cross'd lovers from different sides of warring planets. Alana is from the planet Landfall, a place of great technological advancement, and their planet is in constant conflict with the magic-wielders of that planet's moon Wreath, where Marko hails from. Marko was captured after a battle with Landfall where he threw down his arms because he is a self-proclaimed conscientious objector, and he was imprisoned, where Alana, who was also somewhat disgraced in her military service, is his prison guard. Fast-forward several months, and Alana is giving birth to their child, Hazel, the actual narrator of the series. The very beginning of the series is dedicated to her actually giving birth, and it's hilarious and beautiful and suspenseful since they are being pursued from both sides of this galaxy-wide conflict. In the midst of their pursuit, where they are in search of a legendary (and perhaps fictional) Rocketship Forest so that they might get off the planet with their new baby, we are introduced to all sorts of new, strange, frightening and wonderfully rich characters. We meet Prince Robot IV, a humanoid being with what appears to be an old-fashioned TV set for a head, who is the one primarily tasked with the elimination of Marko and Alana. We also meet two of the bounty hunters that have are in a bidding war to get the fugitives, The Will and The Stalk. The Stalk is a somewhat frightening-looking spider-like alien who carries weapons in all of her additional appendages, and The Will is humanoid, but has with him what might be one of my favorite characters EVER and that is the character of Lying Cat, who is a talking cat that can tell when someone is lying. Also characters in their own right are a legendary group of terrifying killers called The Horrors, which, like all characters in this book aren't quite what they seem.
Alana is much more prone to using violent means to protect her husband and new baby, but Marko is hesitant, despite that he carries a sword chained inside its sheath that he has vowed never to unsheath. Prince Robot IV is less than pleased with the notion of having to track this fugitive couple down, feeling that it is beneath his aristocratic sensibilities. The Stalk and The Will obviously have a romantic/sexual past but both of them are fearsome, amoral killers, or as one might think, until The Will goes to the pleasure planet of Sextillion and his unethical code is put to the test.
Vaughan's writing is as strong and natural as it's ever been, and he uses a great deal of English-Speaking slang, because... why not? Whatever language these different races might be speaking to each other is still going to be translated to our language, and Vaughan, if nothing else, is masterful at the art of language. Each issue moves along at an incredibly even pace, allowing for moments of great suspense and violence, but also allowing for great humor, character beats and texture to the worlds around them. If there is a science fiction-fantasy comic out there that is so adept at creating its own universe, I have yet to read it.
Fiona Staples' art is an excellent balance of extreme detail to abstract lines and shading. It is exactly the feel that the book demands, and once again, Vaughan has found the perfect person to illustrate his work. Her amazeballs work is absolutely suited to this book and is absolutely one of those artists that demands following in this and other titles.
The thing that this book may bring up for some people is an age-old argument about Art vs. Pornography. The book as a whole is certainly not for the kiddies, but it's hardly packed with sexual activity. However, there is a book in this collection that broaches that argument because it does take place on the planet of Sextillion and as The Will goes walking down its streets, there are several rather explicit sexual acts going on in the background. The general way of defining "pornography" is showing sexual acts that are designed to titillate or create a general state of sexual arousal. That is very much not the case here. This is not a comic that is somehow designed to sexually excite its readers, but I can imagine perhaps a less open-minded reader or someone who is new to reading mature-themed comics being a more than a little taken aback by some of those panels. But really, it's parsed down to no more than three or four panels. It's not gratuitous and it's not in your face, but it's there, so new readers may want to be aware. That's all I really wanted to say about that.
When it all boils down to how this book is and how it makes you feel, it's an beautiful and massively entertaining book that keeps you invested in all of its characters, creates a incredibly rich universe for these characters to exist in, never fails to please the eye or the intellect, and really, like Hazel, SAGA is something of a small miracle.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By Adam C. Wall
Format:Paperback
I've been reading comic books for about 20 years. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I tell you that this is the best comic book I have read in my entire life. I've been a huge fan of Brian K. Vaughan, largely in part to his talent in creating new and engaging characters in a comic industry that has become a little bit stagnant. His work on Runaways and The Hood really intrigued me, because he has a knack for making over-the-top characters seem incredibly believable and real with his dialogue and exposition. He has a talent that few, if any comic writers can claim to equal.
I picked up this trade on a whim, simply because it had Vaughan's name on it, (and who am I kidding? It was cheap!) I flipped it open and experienced the first page, which literally made me burst into laughter. Comics just don't DO that very often! I was laughing out loud in my local shop, and I'm sure that I looked like a loon, but I didn't care. I immediately purchased this book and headed back to my house to read it. I read it three times in a row; I could not believe the caliber of book I was reading.
Vaughan has created a universe that is completely ridiculous. I mean that in a good way. He has introduced to us a world that is so sickening, gorgeous, bewildering, and imaginative all at the same time. This story is essentially Star Wars meets Romeo and Juliet. It's such an injustice to categorize it like this, as that description doesn't do it justice at all, but it's as close as I can come off the cuff. Now, as you'd expect, the writing is superb. Vaughan has made this world so out of the ordinary, and yet somehow so relatable with his grounded dialogue and narration carrying the story along. Vaughan's writing in this book is maybe his best yet, but he's not even the best part of Saga...
The real star of this book is Fiona Staples. I guarantee you that even if you hate the story, you won't be able to keep your jaw un-dropped when looking at the simply BEAUTIFUL work by Staples. She is the best artist in the industry. Hands down, her work is always awe-inspiring. One panel will be the most tender, human moment you have ever seen in a panel, and the next is the most disturbing image you hoped you would NEVER see. Her imagination and execution is unparalleled, and I would recommend this book if for no other reason than to simply look at this work. It's from heaven, I swear.
If I had to recommend one comic for somebody to read, it would be this one. The writing is superb, the art is out of this world, and I'm going to go grab my copy and read it again.
I picked up this trade on a whim, simply because it had Vaughan's name on it, (and who am I kidding? It was cheap!) I flipped it open and experienced the first page, which literally made me burst into laughter. Comics just don't DO that very often! I was laughing out loud in my local shop, and I'm sure that I looked like a loon, but I didn't care. I immediately purchased this book and headed back to my house to read it. I read it three times in a row; I could not believe the caliber of book I was reading.
Vaughan has created a universe that is completely ridiculous. I mean that in a good way. He has introduced to us a world that is so sickening, gorgeous, bewildering, and imaginative all at the same time. This story is essentially Star Wars meets Romeo and Juliet. It's such an injustice to categorize it like this, as that description doesn't do it justice at all, but it's as close as I can come off the cuff. Now, as you'd expect, the writing is superb. Vaughan has made this world so out of the ordinary, and yet somehow so relatable with his grounded dialogue and narration carrying the story along. Vaughan's writing in this book is maybe his best yet, but he's not even the best part of Saga...
The real star of this book is Fiona Staples. I guarantee you that even if you hate the story, you won't be able to keep your jaw un-dropped when looking at the simply BEAUTIFUL work by Staples. She is the best artist in the industry. Hands down, her work is always awe-inspiring. One panel will be the most tender, human moment you have ever seen in a panel, and the next is the most disturbing image you hoped you would NEVER see. Her imagination and execution is unparalleled, and I would recommend this book if for no other reason than to simply look at this work. It's from heaven, I swear.
If I had to recommend one comic for somebody to read, it would be this one. The writing is superb, the art is out of this world, and I'm going to go grab my copy and read it again.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Saga, Volume 1", a graphic novel from the folks at Image, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples, fit that description to a "T" - although I DID enjoy it, as well. Heroes have dark sides, villians have soft spots, and any one of them could end up dead on the next page.
This graphic novel is not for kids. The opening scene is a back-room childbirth, not as graphic as it could be, BUT far more than you'd see on television - even cable. Lots of "bad language". Some sex (yes, this really is a GRAPHIC novel!!) And violence, even implied or downright administered against kids. BUT it all fits together. (OK, I'm a bit more of a prude since I got my AARP card, and I could have done with the sex being done off-screen, but to each their own.)
If you want super-heroes in tights, taking on threats to our way of life - pick up a different book. If you want DRAMA, if you want ART, if you want something that shows how "comics" have evolved for the new millenium, pick up "Saga, Volume 1". Then, you probably will want to grab "Volume 2" when it comes out next summer.
I don't freely give out 5 stars, but this was so close to that mark that I decided to round up.
DISCLOSURE: This book was supplied free of charge via random draw. The distributors probably hoped for a review in return, and further hoped that it was good, but no promises were made to write a review, let alone influence its tone or content.
This graphic novel is not for kids. The opening scene is a back-room childbirth, not as graphic as it could be, BUT far more than you'd see on television - even cable. Lots of "bad language". Some sex (yes, this really is a GRAPHIC novel!!) And violence, even implied or downright administered against kids. BUT it all fits together. (OK, I'm a bit more of a prude since I got my AARP card, and I could have done with the sex being done off-screen, but to each their own.)
If you want super-heroes in tights, taking on threats to our way of life - pick up a different book. If you want DRAMA, if you want ART, if you want something that shows how "comics" have evolved for the new millenium, pick up "Saga, Volume 1". Then, you probably will want to grab "Volume 2" when it comes out next summer.
I don't freely give out 5 stars, but this was so close to that mark that I decided to round up.
DISCLOSURE: This book was supplied free of charge via random draw. The distributors probably hoped for a review in return, and further hoped that it was good, but no promises were made to write a review, let alone influence its tone or content.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Graphic Novel
The title says it all - this is a great graphic novel. Reminiscent of early Neil Gaiman, it offers an interesting story and a unique setting. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Shoujo Otaku since 1997
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great story and characters.
I bought this book on a whim and absolutely love it. The characters are well written and complex and the story is unique. I would recommend this to anyone.
Published 7 days ago by MJ
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great new comic series
I had been hearing a lot about Saga a lot in the past year and with my renewed interest in American comics I decided to grab the first volume to give it a try. Read more
Published 8 days ago by Nicolle
4.0 out of 5 stars
Believe The Hype
I actually haven't read much of Vaughan's stuff before. A little here and there, but nothing that got me super revved up. This, though, is exactly what I'm looking for. Read more
Published 8 days ago by MP Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Looking forward to the next collection!
Among other comics and graphic novels, both the writing and art really stand out. Vaughn is never afraid to buck genre conventions, and blends science fiction, fantasy, and even... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Colin Lacy
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed feelings
The core story is a wonderful one: forbidden love between enemies in a time of war produces a child who is loved deeply by her parents. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Adam B. Shaeffer
5.0 out of 5 stars
sw
HOLY S*** SAGA IS THE BEST
i want to jsut
LOVE THIS BOOK FOREVER
READ IT I SWEAR YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED.
GOD BLESS YOU BRIAN GOD BLESS YOU FIONA
i want to jsut
LOVE THIS BOOK FOREVER
READ IT I SWEAR YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED.
GOD BLESS YOU BRIAN GOD BLESS YOU FIONA
Published 11 days ago by Sarah Walsh
5.0 out of 5 stars
I'm telling you its good.
SAGA is a great book that's well worth your time. Want to know why? Let's go.
First, the writing. Brian K. Vaughn can tell an entertaining tale. Read more
First, the writing. Brian K. Vaughn can tell an entertaining tale. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Short Badger
5.0 out of 5 stars
No better combination of story and art
Brian K. Vaughan's book is a mastery of intrigue, uniqueness and depth. Fiona Staples' artwork is stunning and accompanies the story like a glove.
Published 13 days ago by Arleen Alphonse
5.0 out of 5 stars
Different but awesome
It's in a different style and a cool universe. Don't like the "tvheads" but the rest is amazing. Great story and greate photo.
Published 13 days ago by Tommy Sagemar
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