Tag Archives: Brian K. Vaughan

Dec 4 2013

Saga 16

Alternating Currents: Saga 16, Drew and Shelby

Today, Drew and Shelby are discussing Saga 16, originally released November 27th, 2013.

The best-laid plans of mice and men

Often go awry

Robert Burns, To A Mouse

Drew: I used to get so disappointed when the plans of a protagonist would change. It took me a long time to understand that those changes are the engine of drama, and even longer to appreciate that they reflect reality on a fundamental level. Our plans are always changing, sometimes due to external forces, and other times due to internal chances to our own priorities. Most narratives are loaded with the former type, but that latter type is rare. Rarer still are narratives where every character has their plans upended in both ways. Saga has long been one such rarity, and issue 16 reasserts the fragility of its characters’ plans. Continue reading →

Nov 4 2013

Saga 15

saga 15

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Saga 15, originally released October 30th, 2013.

Shelby: I don’t have any kids, but I assume parenting is hard. Not just because you’re trying to figure out how to keep this small creature safe and provide for it and raise it in a way that it doesn’t turn out to be a total douche (presumably that is a common parenting goal), you’ve also got to put up with a deluge of “help.” Everyone who’s raised a child, as well as no small number who haven’t, believe they know the best way to do it. And they are more than happy to give you all sorts of advice on the subject. No matter how sound that advice may be (like, “you should probably get a job”), if it’s unsolicited it will probably be poorly received.

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Oct 16 2013

The Private Eye 4

private eye 4Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing The Private Eye 4, originally released October 8th, 2013.

…it’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you.

Rachel Dawes, Batman Begins

Drew: As a child of the 90s, assured at every moment that it’s what’s inside that counts, the above sentiment confused me when I first heard it. The obvious difference is that, while after-school specials were focused on appearances and prejudice, Batman Begins is trading in ideologies. That is, the best of intentions don’t amount to a whole lot if you don’t act on them. Feeling guilty for being a jerk doesn’t actually excuse jerky behavior. Unfortunately, the practicalities of life force us into hypocrisy, as we cling to moral ideologies that we can’t actually measure up to. Think about how much you read compared to how much you want to read (or worse yet, how much you think you should), or how often you exercise, or call home, or see your friends. We want to be “better,” more ideological people than we are, and only occasionally do we put on a Batsuit to right those wrongs. Private Eye 4 finds DeGuerre reaching one of those ideological breaking points, only his goals aren’t nearly so noble. Continue reading →

Sep 27 2013

Saga 14

saga 14

Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Saga 13, originally released September 25th, 2013.

Shelby: One of the big parts of growing up is learning that you can’t always have what you want. As a kid, when your parents tell you that you can’t have something, you pitch a fit in the middle of the Jewel-Osco, but as you grow up you learn to more appropriately deal with disappointment. It’s a process that never stops, because we constantly have things we want taken away from us. Sometimes we have to choose between two things we want, knowing that we’ll always be a little disappointed for the option we didn’t take. Sometimes we have to face the hard truth that we can never again have what was lost, no matter how badly we want it.

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Aug 19 2013

Saga 13

saga 13

Today, Patrick and (guest writer) Brandon are discussing Saga 12, originally released August 14th, 2013.

Patrick: At the midnight Saga release party at Meltdown Comics over a year ago, Brian K. Vaughan said that he wanted to tell the story of a normal family stuck in the middle of an interstellar war that they wanted nothing to do with. The series itself bears this idea directly – Marko and Alana are combatants from opposite sides of an endless war that find each other through their shared belief in peace. From a storyteller’s perspective, War is much easier to write than Peace. In war (metaphorical or otherwise), there is an objective: no matter how messy and dark it gets, conditions for victory are clear. Saga 13 finds our characters searching blindly for what they’re ‘supposed’ to do next. It’s a meditation on the hope buried in hopelessness and the origin and influence of values. That’s right – welcome back to motherfucking Saga.

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Jul 8 2013

The Private Eye 3

private eye 3

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing The Private Eye 3, originally released June 28th, 2013.

Technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself.

Vinton G. Cerf
The New York Times

Drew: In 2009, the highest court in France declared access to the internet a basic human right. In 2010, Costa Rica’s Supreme Court issued a similar ruling. Greece even wrote that right into their constitution. I tend to agree more with Vinton Cerf’s op-ed piece (quoted above) than the courts and councils of these countries, but that only dredges up the stickier question of what rights are enabled by the internet? The freedom of speech is an obvious example, but it also obviously existed before the internet. Sure, the internet facilitates the distribution of ideas, but so does being published by Random House, and nobody would claim that publishing contracts are an inalienable right. To me, the internet isn’t nearly as much about the freedom of speech as it is about the freedoms of convenience and anonymity. I would argue that neither of these are rights, per se, but does something need to be a right for someone to feel injustice when it is taken away? More importantly, how might that sense of injustice deform society? This seems to be the question at the heart of Private Eye — and the reason its setting doesn’t simply resemble a pre-internet world. Continue reading →

May 10 2013

The Private Eye 2

private eye 2

Today, Patrick and (guest writer) Ben are discussing The Private Eye 2, originally released May 7th, 2013.

Patrick: I don’t like the board game Clue. However, there are some things that are supremely satisfying about it: that setting is incredible; those characters are iconic; pulling the cards out at the end to see if you had guessed everything correctly – that’s all good. But 98% of that game is simply gathering information, which ends up being far less engaging than if you were actually a detective solving Mr. Body’s murder in a creepy old mansion. If you were actually there, you’d get to know the suspects, form attachments with them, get a feel for the rooms, investigate the weapons. Clue lacks emotional investment – that’s my point. Now that The Private Eye’s central mystery has been established, Brian K. Vaughan eschews the information-gather phase in favor of a deeper look at his characters. Instead of answering questions about what happened, he answers the question of why the P.I. should care. Continue reading →

Apr 12 2013

Saga 12

saga 12

Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Saga 12, originally released April 10th, 2013.

Patrick: Robots and aliens and monsters and ghosts and magic spells — Saga has never had a difficult time of establishing itself as a piece of science fiction / fantasy literature. The well-defined characters at the heart of the story — the young family of Marko, Alana and Hazel — go a long way toward grounding the series. In recent issues, that same humanity has been extended to peripheral characters, like The Will. This issue leaves all of those comfortable characters behind, and fills in the gaps in the surprisingly nuanced character of Prince Robot IV. When we finally meet D. Oswald Heist, it’s no surprise that he’s a fully formed person with hopes, fears and secrets. Despite itself, I’m beginning to believe that every corner of this world is fully realized.

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Apr 10 2013

iOS Blocks Saga 12

Yesterday, Brian K Vaughan announced that Apple has blocked any sales of Saga 12 through any iOS apps, ostensibly over what Vaughan characterized as “two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex.” This move may come as a surprise to many readers, but will sound familiar to fans of Joe Casey’s Sex #1, which was similarly blocked last month. You can bet your ass that the Retcon Punchers have opinions on this one. Welcome to the Chat Cave.
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Mar 26 2013

Saga 11

saga 11

Today, Shelby and guest writer Suzanne are discussing Saga 11, originally released March 20th, 2013.

Shelby: How am I supposed to speak intelligently about this title? In all my write-ups, I strive to find that deeper meaning, that thread of something more that runs through the book. That’s what we do here, and we do it because we believe whole-heartedly that comic books are a form of literature and deserve to be treated as such. But then I get a title like Saga, and I don’t know what to say. Brian K. Vaughn is masterfully juggling broad themes like family, love, and sacrifice, tying it all together with strongly-developed characters and moments of emotional nuance. Fiona Staples work is beyond compare; she animates the men and women (and cats) Vaughn has already breathed life into. To be frank, sometimes this book just leaves me kind of speechless it’s so good. Continue reading →