Saga & Other Graphics

A Romeo and Juliet story where warring planets stand in for feuding houses and, instead of killing themselves, our fugitive heroes are just trying to make a life for themselves and their newborn daughter. Saga is straight-up space opera, where the horned moon-dwellers may work magic while their winged opponents invest in the latest laser and missile tech, but this is really a Clarke’s Law situation where the plausibility and pedigree of the deadly force matter less than how it’s used (especially against our protagonists). Instead of getting tied up in technical details, writer Brian K. Vaughan lets the details of his imagined future speak to the present-day. You see, planet Landfall and its moon Wreath have long since exported their war to other planets to minimize the damage to the homeworlds. We see a non-native Landfall medic who signed up in order to get permission to attend university on Landfall. We have a shady intelligence officer, calculations as to who qualifies as a “friendly,” and plenty of collateral damage. Both sides of the conflict occasionally use outside contractors, and our bounty hunter (with a heart of gold?) has to deal with his agent and his insurance company. Volume Three introduces us to a storyline that touches on the powers and freedom of the press.

More even than the present-day parallels, however, it’s the emotional truths that matter to the story. The illustrations by Fiona Staples do a large part of the work, drawing us in and conveying subtle nuances of expression (a grin versus an indulgent smile, sadness versus shame, surprise and fear). It’s exciting to have a couple worth rooting for, full partners: Alana the brash soldier-turned prison guard-turned deserter and Marko the conflicted pacifist and former detainee. Their relationship, like those of all the characters, is complex, with attractions and resentments and fights and sacrifices. Even characters who may seem relatively minor have developed backstories (like our royal prince with PTSD who also happens to be a robot – and the mechanics of these robot royalty I just can’t stop questioning, no matter that the story so far has little time for such nuts and bolts). I absolutely began to care for these people. (Spoilers be damned: I had a scare, but Lying Cat is alive and in the picture as of the end of Chapter 18.) This is a story about love and war and sex and hope, societal guilt and responsibilities, parenting and family, and even (with a nod, I’m convinced, to Samuel R. Delany) the importance of art. I can’t wait to read more of it (but I’ll have to, since Volume Four isn’t out yet … I wonder how the individual issues are being released).

OK, you may be asking, perceptive loyal reader: aren’t graphic novels a little out of my wheelhouse? Why am I writing about comics? Well, in large part because one of my Goodreads groups in hosting a science fiction and fantasy graphic novel challenge. I haven’t read a lot of comics or graphic novels (Maus, Perspepolis, and that’s it?), especially in the sci-fi and fantasy genres, and there are some classics I’ve been meaning to get around to for a while (Watchmen). Of course, when I got onto Amazon to look at titles, I found myself buying up mostly interesting-looking contemporary titles. (Yes, the library has graphic novels, although not a huge selection and generally a little battered. Also, I’ve worked at a public library, and I know which kinds of books have to be retrieved from the men’s restrooms at the end of a night.) Oh, I’m sure I’ll get to Alan Moore eventually. I may even try some manga. And although I told myself I’d just get some a couple of Volume Ones and borrow newer issues if I enjoyed the beginning, when the first issue of Saga arrived in the mail, I knew I’d want copies of the rest of the series. We’ll see if that trend continues for a couple of other series I want to try(Sandman, actually a classic; The Sixth Gun). Sheesh. I thought trade paperbacks were expensive; guess you gotta pay the illustrator. And colorists. But I think I’ll intersperse with some actual prose next.

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Meanwhile, notes on a couple of graphic novels I got to before Saga:

Because I’m a fan of the Dresden Files books, I’d been interested in the graphic novels. Since the first, shorter volume (Welcome to the Jungle) is an original story by Jim Butcher, I thought it worth an investment. Overall verdict: pretty good. I like the art by Ardian Syf: it’s detailed and interesting and fits in well with how I’d imagined Dresden and the Chicago settings. (I did wonder what was up w/that scar over Harry’s eye and why it seemed to keep changing sides of his face before deciding those lines were really just there to give “craggy” facial definition and assist in conveying expressions.) In Butcher’s introduction, he writes, “I can honestly say that the representation of the characters found here is very, very close to the images of them that exist in my head. Harry is bang-on, in particular… .” There’s pretty much only one viable suspect to the mystery plot, but the visual reveal of the villain’s true form is satisfyingly creepy. (Also, just from the small tastes here, I can tell the vampires bits in this series are going to look really awesome.) There are some nice visual jokes (Harry’s run-through of the “usual suspects”), but in many of the action sequences, I felt like the text/narration from Harry got in the way of following the visuals. It’s a real challenge to balance a visual medium with a character whose distinctiveness is his wise-cracking inner voice, and while the volume is very readable, I don’t think it always finds the perfect balance with this. Fun, but it doesn’t necessarily have me rushing out to buy the rest of the graphic novels.

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My other recent graphic novel read is decidedly not fantasy or sci-fi. I’d been reading a lot of film reviews (while half-heartedly trying to avoid anything too spoilery) and think pieces on Blue is the Warmest Color since it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and I’d been curious. But some of the potential problematic issues that had been mentioned (a prurient focus on sex, poor working conditions for the starring actresses, the originator of the story’s expressed dissatisfaction with the adaptation, power imbalance between the fictional lovers) tended to make me less curious. So, since the royalties would go to author Julie Maroh, and since I usually try to read the book before seeing the movie anyway, it made sense to check Blue is the Warmest Color the graphic novel.

The book tells a moving love story. There’s not a great deal of dialogue, though some narration is provided in the form of lines from an old diary read by one of the lovers. The watercolor-like art, in shades of neutrals with dashes of blue, draws in the reader and conveys both emotion and, where appropriate, eroticism. The frames sometimes “zoom in” to give emphasis or explain nuance. The story begins when Clementine, a French high school student, finds herself uninterested in the senior boy who wants to date her, fascinated instead by a blue-haired woman she glimpses in passing in the square. The woman turns out to be Emma, an art college student, who is intrigued by Clem but unsure about complicating her own life and relationships.

It’s true that there’s not much new or unexpected (arguably, apart from the gender of the lovers) to this romance; the value is in the sensitive and believable exploration of a particular relationship. (Happily, although at least one of the main characters becomes a teacher, this is not a student-teacher relationship, which is what several of the film reviews I’d read implied. Celebrating that kind of power imbalance in a relationship seemed to bother me more than the reviewers, who seemed to more caught up on the age difference itself. In the graphic novel, the four-year age difference between the lovers is never dismissed as unproblematic and is explored, I think, in a thoughtful and appropriate way.) I’m not sure whether I think the very sad frame story is necessary, though I’m more or less willing to accept that the author felt it was. I would have appreciated more information about the couple’s mature, adult relationship, but I think that would have been a different book. The heart of this one is in adolescent love, strong and unsure at the same time. It’s a beautiful piece, well worth reading whether or not I decide to rent the movie.