Saga - Shitting Awesome

Generally speaking, a new comic that opens with the phrase, "Am I shitting? I feel like I'm shitting!", is book of the year without question. Well, not only do we get this catching dialogue on the first page, but we also happen to get unbelievably gorgeous artwork from Fiona Staples. Not only do we get unbelievably gorgeous art from Fiona Staples, but we also get to tell people that the book we're reading is written by the ever-heralded and ever-elusive Brian K. Vaughan. Last thing I read of his was The Runaways, and I happened to love The Runaways. If all of that doesn't convince you that you should own this, then consider that issue #1 is a 48-page story for a cover price of $2.99. Satisfied? No? Ok, there's breastfeeding...and robot sex. That should be enough to hook anybody.

So what is Mr. Vaughan scribing and Ms. Staples arting? Saga is a tale of moon-crossed lovers from a war-torn planet that has a feud with it's moon. They haven't blown each other up yet because the explosion of one would send the other careening into the sun. We catch our lovers on the run from both parties and in the middle of the birth of there child. Oh, and chick has wings and dude has horns and knows magic.

Oh, and the whole story is told from the baby's point of view.

That's the basic gist of it.

All I can say is that I'm compelled to continue buying this book. Hell, I bought a first print of the first issue on ebay for $10 three days after it hit the retailers. That's how much I wanted to know what I was missing.

I'm pretty happy that I did. I'm really loving it. In just two issues I feel emotionally invested in these two characters. Superman has 70 years of continuity and I still haven't given one shit about him. This is probably the best first two issues I've read ever. You know, I remember a time when I was excited for comics. It was in the early 90's and Image was publishing billions of new #1's. What? I don't know who these characters are! Savage Dragon is like The Hulk, but interesting? Youngblood is like The Avengers, but with more pouches? Spawn is like Ghost Rider, but straight? Friggin awesome! (I didn't say 'fuck' when I was ten) Image was awesome until the novelty wore off, then I stopped collecting comics altogether for about a decade. I didn't miss much. I think this was God's way of telling me "Dude, comics are gonna suck for awhile, so just lay low and catch it on the flip side".

Well, Saga is like comics, but good.

It's giving me that feeling of wonder I had when I used to read a comic and think "This is something I haven't seen."

Saga gets two enthusiastic horns up. I hope Vaughan and Staples have a long run together on this book.