Angela Does Comics

I really wanted to call this segment "Angela does Brain Vaughan", but for obvious reasons the title was changed... However he is the writer I will be talking about today. Lately I've been suffering from a massive book slump, and one way I get out of it is by slipping in some graphic novels or comics. Figured why I was blazing through some I would do a review/recommendation post. Gonna start off right away by saying I am in no way a comic expert so if I miss use some terminology please don't bite my head off... Anyways the two series I want to talk about are Saga and Y: The Last Man.

Y: The Last Man Book One (Volumes 1-10)
Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Pia Guerra (Illustrator), José Marzán Jr. (Illustrator)
Yorick Brown is an unemployed escape artist, and also happens to be one of the two remaining Y chromosome carriers left on earth... The other one being his testy companion monkey named

Ampersand. When a mysterious plague wipes out any and everything with a Y chromosome the real question isn't why did it happen; it's why are these two the only ones left alive? Yorick is more interested in finding his girlfriend than he is in finding a cure. When asked to head out and find a doctor who might be able to figure out what happened he thought it would be an easy way to get back to his girl... He never imagined it would mean running from angry republicans, gangs, and amazon women who have no interest in restoring the male race.


I was recommended Y by my friend Chris and I'm so thankful he did (if you're reading this Chris then yes, that did taste like vinegar to say). When Chris told me this was a series about there being no men left on earth my heart did do a little flutter about how well he knew me. However I was still a little ehhhh about if it was really going to be for me or not. But I must confess that I really, really enjoyed this. It is such a neat concept for a book and plays out so well. This is a little bit more of what I call a "slow burn book". It starts off a little slower then builds up to be more. By the end of the book I was so hooked and it has me dying to know what happens! The setting of Y is good, the side characters are interesting, the action is steady, but there is no denying that Yorick is the best part of the novel. He is one of my all time favorite comic males. He has the perfect rambling comic relief and a real presence about him. I love the way Yorick handles events that are tossed at him. Y is a comic that could have gone either one of two ways: one being totally boring and mundane or two: the idea a plague killing off all the men and none of the women is done way over-the-top, luckily everything manages to balance out and this comic ended up nailing it. The characters themselves are so deep and fleshed-out, they make the story feel completely genuine. A comic about love, lose, and survival. This is one I could easily recommend to anyone. 

Side-note: The whole time I was reading this I was thinking "I really wish this would be a movie... It would play out so well on the big screen"... Turns out it was opted and I believe made into a short film, but never really took off. PLEASE SOMEONE OUT THERE MAKE THIS INTO A MOVIE!!!! I need to see this. Give it a stronger cast, with a legit budget, and give this a real go.

Saga (Volumes 1-4)
Brian K. Vaughan (Writer), Fiona Staples (Artist)

When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a new life into a very dangerous world. Marko and Alana travel through the galaxy too flee those who seek to kill them.

I LOVE Saga for so many reasons... The art, the badassness, the compete eff'd up weirdness of it, but most of all because of the story. Saga will have you hooked within the first few pages. It's my new obsession. This is a comic that throws in everything and the kitchen sink. There's: love, war, sex, robot human royalty, sexy guys with horns, cyclopes smut writers, wooden rocket ships, a spider women assassin, a baby seal that sells what I think are walruses, a cat that can tell lies, a dead girl nanny, and things are only the start of it. When I first started seeing this comic popping up everywhere and then hearing what it was about I remember thinking "maybe there is such a thing as too much sci-fi"... Saga proves that there is no such thing as too much. Seriously put a condom on your head because your mind is about to be blown by this series. Saga is so bizarre that your brain wont know how to compute everything. Pretty sure it is physically impossible to just pinpoint one thing that draws you in. It's a combination of so many strong aspects thrown together to make such a beautiful disaster, and we get to hold it, and read it, and it's amazing. Marko, Alana, and Hazel are characters that will draw you in. Brian writes them in a way that will pull your heartstrings all while twisting your brain with these little one liners about them. I love Marko and Alana's forbidden love and their everyday struggles with adulting. I love that the story is told by Hazel while at the same time not. But most of all I'm head over, crazy fan-girling, living in your bushes obsessed with the art in this series. Saying it was both stunning and unique would be an understatement. Fiona Staples has a style all her own. She crushes it, nails it, and then knocks it out of the park. 

Saga is a smart, funny. vulgar. exciting graphic with a ton of WTF images and moments. It is a page turner that will have you saying "What the Hell am I reading" with each delicious turn. This is a must read series.

I give both these series a 10/10 star rating.