Saga Compendium 1

From the staff book exchange shelf at my school.

Title: Saga Compendium
Issue: Volume 1
Date: September , 2019
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks, Steven Finch
Cover: Fiona Staples
Editor: Eric Stephenson

This phonebook-sized (a comparison that is becoming less and less meaningful as I get older!) volume collects the first 54 issues of the Brian K. Vaughan/Fiona Staples epic. Narrated by a child of two soldiers on opposite sides of a seemingly endless galactic war between a techological planet and its magical moon, Saga is romance, satire, dark comedy, grim action, and most of all, a story about the nature of family.

I read the first issue of this (review is here), and really liked it, but hadn't had the chance to pick up any of the subsequent issues. Reading them as a compilation was a great experience given the huge scope of the story and the numerous plot threads that it weaves.

As I mentioned with the first issue, this is definitely R-rated material, including graphic sex and brutal violence, but the story always seems to re-center and find its heart, even in the face of a lot of sudden and tragic twists of fate.

The plot twists are a real strong point of Saga. Vaughan's writing delivers shock after shock, and Staples' artwork sets every plot twist up perfectly. The story has great pacing, moving in furious bursts and then taking time for characters to age and grow so that the reader really feels the changing dynamics of the family.

In spite of the size of this compilation, an awful lot is left unresolved at the end, and I look forward to the return of Saga in the coming year.

Rating: 9/10

Ex Machina Volume 1: The First Hundred Days

Catching up because I didn't have access to google while traveling.

I got this from the book sale room at the Plymouth MA public library last summer.

This is my last comic read in 2019.

Title: Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days
Issue: Volume 1
Date: February, 2005
Publisher: DC Comics / Wildstorm
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Tony Harris, Tom Feister, J.D. Mettler

Fun superhero story that serves as the background for an excellent political drama.

Public Works employee Mitchell Hundred gains the power to control machines. His attempt at becoming a superhero is full of mishaps and mistakes, so he decides he could do more good by running for mayor of New York City.

His unlikely political victory leaves him with a whole new set of challenges to face.

A really strong supporting cast of characters and a solid grasp of politics help keep this story interesting while weaving a complex array of subplots and twists. There's a good mix of humor and tragedy, and excellent use of flashback to slowly reveal the events behind the main storyline.

This volume collects the first five issues, including one of my all-time favorite ending splash pages at the end of the first issue.

Rating: 8.5/10

Saga #1

Random comic from the backlog,. Turned out to be pretty good.

Title: Saga
Issue: 1
Date: March, 2012
Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Letterer: Fonografiks, Steven Finch
Cover: Fiona Staples
Editor: Eric Stephenson

Two star-crossed lovers, quite literally since they are on opposite sides in an ongoing interplanetary war, have a child together, and are now on the run from the forces of both sides.

This is definitely R-rated material, just to be clear. That being said, the opening scene was absolutely awesome, capturing the wonder of the birth of the baby without leaving out any of the mess and sprinkling in some spot-on humor.

The story gets the main characters on the run, establishes the background, and gives some insight into the villains from two different factions that will be pursuing them.

Both lead characters are flawed, possibly broken, but both come across as powerful personalities in their own ways. The baby get a bit of caption narration that adds flavor and serves to fill in a few details here and there. The world mixes gritty space opera with fairy-tale and mythological imagery. The two warring races could be described as traditional demons (one with wings, the other with horns, and their baby with both), but the culture they are part of is original and interesting.

The story and images go for shock value in a few places, which is usually a turn-off for me, but I was hooked into the story from the opening page, and I found myself enjoying it all the way through.

Rating: 8.5/10