#cbr11bingo #Banned/Challenged Books
Saga Volume One is classic fantasy meets classic science fiction meets classic graphic novel. We have sex (any kind you could imagine). We have drugs. We have violence (lots of violence). We have bestiality (Yes, boys and girls they went there!). And while I did not see it, I am sure there was some rock and roll but there is so much more. So much more.
No wonder this series has been banned! (Again, I do not condone that, but I totally get why people have issues with this book). I have seen multiple covers, but always the main female character, Alana, is breast feeding baby Hazel (one just Hazel, the other Hazel, Alana, mother/wife and father/husband, Marko). Inside the covers we have full-frontal females and we have full-frontal males (and no wonder he could not go “deeper”); we have these TV-headed-human body robots (?) having some fun looking (and considering later, vanilla) sex (see deeper comment). There is a six-year-old slave girl (I wanted to grab her off the page and run)! There is an arm-less, spider woman that has a phone shaped like an egg (and I do not mean the kind you cook). There is said TV-person using the bathroom while it is learning its partner is with child. We see the birthing of Hazel (we see Alana getting into the pain). We see the chopping off hands/arms, bullet holes and lots of blood all over the place. There are entrails-showing ghosts. There is not only a bi-racial couple, they are different species (Alana of a winged people and Marko of a horned people). Need I go on for other triggers that cause this banning/challenging?
The story is an interesting combination of well-known tales (Romeo and Juliet anyone?) and modern tales (though war is anything but a modern idea, it is more the way it is portrayed). There is a solid story-line going through the pages. This collection is the first six of the single-story publications. As I am not a huge fan of continuation stories, I like the fact that a good chunk of the story is told at once. It helps keeps the story flowing and interesting. And humor! The dark humor that runs throughout is not for everyone. I am not ashamed to say, I laughed way too manically when speaking of the gent on his throne (pun intended as he is a prince of his people) to coworkers. Marko’s awkward “but honey, you are the one I love, now,” is every-man; smarty pants ghost-teens; literally “grease” monkeys… the list goes on.
The art is a combination of contradictions: perfect colors, lack of color, realistic results, lines perfect, bold images, shadows and light, interesting looking characters with all you need to know about them without coming out and saying, “He was a tall, broad-shouldered, slightly rugged looking man” (I will say the character, The Will, reminded me of a slightly less attractive, Jason Statham). They are a story within themselves.
But in the end, it all boils down to this one thought, “That is, one messed-up world Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples created!”