Saga Returns After 3.5 Years!

Last Wednesday (January 26th), Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples’ popular comic book series Saga released its first new issue for three-and-a-half years. Issue #55 came out after the creative team’s long hiatus. I thought I would give it a try, even though I haven’t read beyond the first two collected volumes (issues #1 to 12). I was curious to see if a relative “newbie” could enjoy the new issue without having read all that came before.

The short answer is “yes”, I really enjoyed it. I made a short video review for my YouTube channel if you are interested. The review is only 2 minutes long. After that, I summarise some of the story and share a few pages of the gorgeous art.

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After reading the issue, I went back to Volume One of the series and re-read it. I posted a review of this first collection back in 2020. Here is my updated review of Saga, Volume 1.

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Saga, Volume 1 (2012) by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples

Brian K. Vaughan has spoken about his ideas for this series, which he says was partly influenced by Star Wars and Flash Gordon. He changed the focus of the story to two “ordinary” people who just want to escape the war and live their lives together bringing up their newborn daughter:

“I didn’t want to tell a Star Wars adventure with these noble heroes fighting an empire. These are people on the outskirts of the story who want out of this never-ending galactic war.”

-Brian K. Vaughan

This is one of the things I like about Saga. The main characters are not your typical heroes. Instead, they are people who need to act heroically to survive. The fact that they have just become parents adds significantly to the story, as it increases the level of peril the reader feels. How will they escape the oncoming danger now they have the addition of newborn baby Hazel? It’s nice to see a story that focuses on a young couple in love doing their best to bring up a baby, even if it is set in a fantastic universe torn asunder by war.

Aside from the quality writing by Brian K. Vaughan, I must highlight the beautiful art by Fiona Staples. She draws with a strong clean line that is not too detailed. Some of the weird and wonderful characters she and Vaughan dream up need to be seen to be believed! I also like the way she draws facial expressions; they are individual and expressive. She doesn’t get lost in backgrounds and her colouring is excellent. Yes, she colours her own art and it adds real depth to the pages.

I’m currently reading through the next volume and hope to continue with the series from here on. My plan is to buy the new issues as they come out and catch up with all the rest of the series at the same time. I keep setting myself these challenges, can I meet them? I hope so because this is a great series. It’s funny, fantastic, compelling, exciting and sexy. Remember when things were sexy? I do, although it feels like a long time since I’ve seen it in a mainstream comic book.

Thanks for reading!

-Wakizashi, *feeling a bit manic after drinking too much green tea*