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SAGA is back! We\u2019re all stoked! This is a very good thing for a litany of reasons. Primarily due to it being a great book with a giant heart, while gracefully navigating social\/political themes that, y\u2019know, actually contribute to the story being told. Injecting a modern take on the tried-and-true tale of forbidden love triumphing over those who would sacrifice everything to see it fail is really where the magic is.<\/p>\n
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(Just kidding. The adorable anthropomorphic Seal in yellow overalls is where the magic is, but you already knew that).<\/p>\n
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SAGA has permeated comic book subculture and occupies it\u2019s own space within mainstream pop culture, bringing in new readers on a relatively consistent basis, even during it\u2019s 3 and a half year hiatus. So now it\u2019s back and folks on our side of the counter are seeing faces coming into the shop that we don\u2019t see as often, if ever. It\u2019s bittersweet because on one hand, it\u2019s incredibly gratifying to see a connection form for people who aren\u2019t typical fans of comics as a medium for storytelling. On the other hand, there is a fair amount of people that only visit a comic book store for SAGA and that\u2019s the extent of their comic book reading. That all changes today! I have concocted a fool-proof plan to make your SAGA-loving friend into a real life comic book reader!<\/p>\n
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Disclaimer: I only tried this once BUT it worked which means that it is absolutely guaranteed to work for you and if it doesn\u2019t, it is 100% their fault for not liking the same stuff I like and should be excommunicated from your life entirely.<\/p>\n
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Alright! Here goes nothin\u2019! *flips chair backwards, straddling the backrest and makes soft, moderately uncomfortable eye contact with you*<\/p>\n
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STEP 1: THE BKV RABBIT-HOLE<\/strong><\/p>\n This one is obvious so we\u2019ll get it out of the way right off the bat. Aside from SAGA, Brian K. Vaughan has written a vast wealth of tremendous comics. The top of the list ought to be Y: THE LAST MAN, PAPER GIRLS, and the criminally underrated EX MACHINA just to name a few. BKV has a distinct voice in his writing that binds together the majority of his bibliography. It\u2019s a lot of content, but reading through the cream of the BKV crop is the next logical step after SAGA and I am always jealous of anyone anytime they get to experience it for the first time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n STEP 2: THE SPIRITUAL SIBLING<\/strong><\/p>\n Step 2 is a little looser in the sense that you kind of have to gauge what really clicked with each individual person in the BKV stuff. We\u2019re wading out of the safe end of the pool here, into unknown territory so it\u2019s important to ensure that your friend\/loved one has their floaties secured around their arms and their goggles painfully suctioned to their face as you guide them by the hand on their literary spiritual awakening. For me, DEADLY CLASS is always<\/strong> next. It\u2019s one of my favorite books of all time and I just find it to be extremely accessible to the widest spectrum of people. I don\u2019t know anyone who was sent away to a boarding school where they were trained to be assassins and sometimes assigned to hunt down their fellow classmates in order determine who passes or fails, but all of my friends know what it\u2019s like to grow up a punk, bend a couple rules here and there, fall in love with\/have your heart broken by horrible people, and become slowly calloused when life reveals itself to not be as idyllic as it may have once been promised to you. Rick Remender and Wes Craig tell that story beautifully. Plus the most recent arc is named after a Jawbreaker song and the current (and final) one is named after an Elliott Smith song. How can ya not love that! That\u2019s all I\u2019ll say about it. It\u2019s overwhelmingly nihilistic and emo at times, but indulging your emo side every now and again is good for the soul, despite what your Dad probably says (tell him your friend Anthony from Comic Books said it was okay to be pensive and dramatic literally ALL THE TIME).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n STEP 3: IT\u2019S FABLES. IT HAS TO BE FABLES.<\/strong><\/p>\n Alright, it doesn\u2019t HAVE to be FABLES, but it dang well should be. FABLES is an incredible epic and much like SAGA, if I try to explain it to you, I\u2019ll stop halfway through and say something like \u201cI know what I\u2019m saying doesn\u2019t make any sense and sounds lame but I promise it\u2019s awesome please just read it for pete\u2019s sake\u201d. You\u2019ve read SAGA and have tried to explain races of people with computer monitor heads that sometimes show explicit images and tree-rocketships and Lying Cats and a bounty hunter DOIN IT with a lady that mostly has the anatomy of a spider so cut me some slack here. I will also accept PREACHER and SANDMAN as alternative recommendations here for much of the same reasons. You have to really lend yourself to the concepts in order to be fully invested in the stories being told, but your training has prepared you for this. I believe in you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n STEP 4: AM I ALLOWED TO HAVE FUN?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n God, no! Comics are supposed to depress the bejeezus out of you! They\u2019re supposed to be heavy and wordy and incline you to fill notebooks with Neil Gaiman and Garth Ennis quotes so everyone knows just how much of a tortured soul you are!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just kidding hahaha who would do something like that, certainly not me *nervously tugs collar*<\/p>\n But seriously, comics that make you laugh are the best and can be a much-needed palate cleanser. Most comics written by Kyle Starks or Mark Russell usually do the trick for me, but CHEW by Jon Layman and Rob Guillory is always my go-to recommendation. The super-short synopsis of CHEW is it\u2019s about a detective who can \u201csee\u201d the existential history of anything he eats. It\u2019s absolutely ridiculous and incredibly fun. Plus, there are plenty of hidden Easter egg jokes within the art that hit just as often as the jokes told in the story. Plus PLUS, there\u2019s a cyborg-chicken named Poyo that kills anything in it\u2019s path.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Welp, that\u2019s all I got. I hope this works for you (already cool) and your friends\/loved ones (potentially cool once they read more comics). But hey, maybe they only like SAGA and that\u2019s it and that\u2019ll be it forever. That\u2019s fine. I\u2019m not mad. I\u2019m not disappointed. I\u2019m totally cool with that. I won\u2019t be passive aggressive\u2026I\u2019ll just drop it\u2026super not bothered…whatever\u2026I want all my stuff back and don\u2019t talk to me anymore.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I may never get asked to write another one of these so thanks for reading this one!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have a great week!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SAGA is back! We\u2019re all stoked! This is a very good thing for a litany of reasons. Primarily due to it being a great book with a giant heart, while gracefully navigating social\/political themes that, y\u2019know, actually contribute to the story being told. Injecting a modern take on the tried-and-true tale of forbidden love […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.grahamcrackers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/papergirls-207x300.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.grahamcrackers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/deadlyclass-205x300.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.grahamcrackers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/fables-195x300.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.grahamcrackers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/chew-204x300.jpg\")
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