Saga and the Revolutionary Power of the Opposite of War

Comic books are a vast medium.  Every genre you can imagine can be found between the covers of one comic or another.  While often seen solely as the setting of superhero stories, there are horror comics, memoir comics, true crime comics, comic adaptations of classic literature, fantasy comics, sci-fi comics, comic adaptations of films, YA comics, comics about history, comics which continue the runs of favorite TV shows, and on and on.  The comic medium truly has something for everyone.  And, as someone who’s loved comic books for nearly forty years, I don’t care about any of those other stories XD.  I’m sorry!  But I don’t!  Bring me my superheroes!  I have novels and movies and TV shows and short story collections and memoirs and nonfiction books for all those other experiences.  When I open a comic book, I want my Marvel heroes, my DC heroes, and nothing else.  Except Saga.  I want Saga.  I want all the Saga.  Saga is the brilliant, blazing, beautiful exception to my rule!  With sixty issues released and forty-eight still to come, Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Fiona Staples (artist) have created a masterpiece of love, family, loss, trauma, trial, and healing…while also telling one of the most poignant antiwar stories I’ve ever read.

Chelsea Cain’s Man-Eaters: Vol. 1

I loved Chelsea Cain’ Mockingbird.  It was a comic as fun as it was intelligent and laugh-out-loud funny, easily one of the best Marvel was publishing…until they prematurely cancelled it.  So you can imagine my elation when I realized Chelsea Cain was back together with her entire Mockingbird team to do another comic!  This time she’s writing for Image Comics and the result is the darkly satirical horror/comedy comic Man-Eaters.  It’s narrative is richly symbolic and deeply mythological all while delivering a unflinching assault on patriarchal oppression.  It’s funny and creepy and has this fascinating slow building mystery.  If you’d like to know more (and who wouldn’t?!?) then you can click here to read the piece I wrote exploring it for Reads & Reels!  I would be super happy if you clicked and read because I dig the piece, love the comic, and am happy to be featured on Reads & Reels :).  So, um, what are you waiting for?  Click away!

My Comic Book Confessions (Vol. 2)

A few months ago I did a post revealing my deep, dark comic secret – I’m not a fan of Batman.  (I just don’t see the appeal!  Sigh…but that was the story of another post.)  I found the act of getting that off my chest and sharing it to be cathartic.  So I’ve decided to do so again.  In a timely piece, given the build up to the Season Seven premiere this weekend, I wanted to spend a little time talking about Robert Kirkman’s MEGA comic book hit The Walking Dead.