Tuesday, February 14, 2023

SAGA #61 - Love Letter


It’s Love Day and what better way to celebrate than to pen a love letter to a Comic Book that I absolutely love: Saga! Yay Saga you’re back, aww, I missed you, but, seriously though? Would you stop going away for six months at a time??? Good googamoogah! Like, enough already! Oy vey. This comic is like a temperamental dream girl you’re dating who has to run off to an ashram for half the year to get away from the ills of society. I get that BKV is doing all his Hollyweird stuff and that’s fine but what about Fiona? She’s not on any other books is she? Does she just do this for shits and giggles? I honestly thought Fiona Staples was like some pear shaped English Woman who watches Absolutely Fabulous on VHS all weekend and drinks hot toddies. Turns out I’m completely wrong. Look at her!

 


She’s a cute Canadian babe who looks to be in her mid 20s. Holy crap, she’s mastered the art of comic books already. She’s probably bored. It doesn’t seem like she’s doing anything else these days other than Saga. Is it BKV’s fault? Fiona, do we need to rope him up, drug him and shackle him down in your basement like he was the lead character in that Apple TV Show ‘The Patient’? Amazing show by the way, highly recommend it. Well, look, I’m not that far from Sherman Oaks, like 20 minutes if it’s after traffic and I can take the 10 to the 405. I can scoop him up for you Fiona. I’m sure I can find some Saga Heads dressed as Petrichor in WeHo to help.

 

Oh Fiona. I love your lines. Your palette. The way you draw eyelashes and naughty bits. Fiona Staples’ art in this glorious book is beyond perfect. There are not enough words and superlatives to accurately describe what a joy it is to take in this comic whenever the hell it comes out. It just feels like you’re right there. It feels like the characters are actually moving and feeling the emotions the moment you take them in. The realism. The humanity. Despite the layoff Saga is like a warm cup of cocoa in front of the radiator on a freezing day; it’s one sublime ‘ahhh, that feels good' every, single, time. It never fails to deliver.

 

As for Mr. ‘Y would you wanna be the Last Man’: BKV is a master storyteller and this book is a testament to what comics should be. Remember when comics lasted more than five frikkin issues? He has masterfully spun a riveting tale for sixty plus issues with not one single clunker in the bunch, not one. There’s supposedly only going to be 108 issues in sum total and I bet not a single reader of this book would mind if this series got to Spawn’s 300 issue milestone. I feel like Saga could drop an issue a month into 2050 and beyond. I get that there are gripes and quips about killing off major characters a bit too much but hey, I think one certain HBO Dragon Egg Havin’ show did it quite on the regular and they seemed to be kinda popular.

 

What also sets Saga apart from the bunch is the community and connections it has fostered over the years. The letters column is an entire universe unto itself and the stories, confessions and miracles that have poured onto those pages over the years is unlike any letter column I’ve seen apart from the Sex Criminals letter column (my goodness that comic was brilliant as well). I mean, for goodness sake, someone frikkin’ proposed to someone in this issue’s letter column. Throw in the costume contests and you have a work of art that has leapt through the pages right into the hearts of people’s lives; people who might not even have been inclined to have ever picked up a comic up in the first place.

 

I think we should all consider ourselves grateful that we were alive and kicking while Saga was pumping out, well, more like drizzling out, issues for us to inhale. I think we should consider it a blessing that we don’t know where this story is headed for in the not knowing it brings us right back the second we see another opportunity to find out.

 

My Ex Fiance wasn’t really into comic books. She was a musician. LA Girl. A Sunset Strip Rock n Roller. Into the night life, going out, socializing. I gave her one issue of Saga to check out. She read every Saga that came into my house. ‘Nuff said.

 

Thank you BKV (you’re probably soo annoyed when people call you that) and Ms Fiona for delivering this epic tale to the ones who are smart enough to follow.

 

Rating: 10.0

Verdict: Champ

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