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Saga?
2 years ago
I was curious how many (if any) furry fans have read or do read the Image comic Saga? It seems like it should be popular among that group, but I don't think I've heard a peep about it. It's been around since 2012 with the same artist/writer team. It's an excellent example of a 'cast of thousands' comic done right, that's not a confusing mess. The characters are a mix of humans, semi-humans, furries, aliens, robots and sentient animals. While it's not pornographic, there's a respectable amount of explicit sex. Mostly straight, some gay. There's very little in the way of one-dimensional 'good guy/bad guy' characters. Almost everyone is shown doing things that could be considered bad or good, depending on the context.
The overall plot is about a centuries-long war between a planet and it's moon, that has spread throughout the galaxy. The moon is peopled by 'the horns,' humanoids with horns (of any kind) that can work magic. The planet is home of 'the wings,' humaniods with wings (of all kinds) that are more technologically advanced. Two soldiers, one from each side, fall in love and have a forbidden half-breed child. Forces from both sides desperately want to erase this evidence of mortal enemies being able to get along peacefully, and the story revolves around this small family trying to stay alive when everyone in the universe is out to get them.
The incredibly diverse (and just outright strange) cast of characters includes: A blue sphinx cat the size of a panther that's a living lie detector, mercenaries, an exiled prince from the robot kingdom, a giant spider lady, a baby seal with a hatchet, two gay reporters that look like sea monkeys, religious meerkats, a ghost that's only the top half of a teenage girl, giant space babies the size of planets, a werewolf back-alley doctor, and police made of fire. That's only a small sampling of what you'll come across.
Of course the story is by no means perfect. One thing to be aware of is that there's an enormous attrition of characters. People get killed off with brutal frequency. No one is safe, including the core cast. So don't get too attached to anybody. The different story arcs are sometimes a little too contemporary. There's storylines about abortion, a trans character, subversive literature and homelessness in between all the sex, violence and political maneuvering.
Still, it's worth picking up. The art is great--clean and easy to read. There's no studying the page for an hour trying to figure out what's going on. The writing and pacing are excellent. While some of the story is dark, there's a lot of humor too. The blue cat who keeps interrupting conversations by saying 'Lying!" every time someone says something not true is a hoot.
The overall plot is about a centuries-long war between a planet and it's moon, that has spread throughout the galaxy. The moon is peopled by 'the horns,' humanoids with horns (of any kind) that can work magic. The planet is home of 'the wings,' humaniods with wings (of all kinds) that are more technologically advanced. Two soldiers, one from each side, fall in love and have a forbidden half-breed child. Forces from both sides desperately want to erase this evidence of mortal enemies being able to get along peacefully, and the story revolves around this small family trying to stay alive when everyone in the universe is out to get them.
The incredibly diverse (and just outright strange) cast of characters includes: A blue sphinx cat the size of a panther that's a living lie detector, mercenaries, an exiled prince from the robot kingdom, a giant spider lady, a baby seal with a hatchet, two gay reporters that look like sea monkeys, religious meerkats, a ghost that's only the top half of a teenage girl, giant space babies the size of planets, a werewolf back-alley doctor, and police made of fire. That's only a small sampling of what you'll come across.
Of course the story is by no means perfect. One thing to be aware of is that there's an enormous attrition of characters. People get killed off with brutal frequency. No one is safe, including the core cast. So don't get too attached to anybody. The different story arcs are sometimes a little too contemporary. There's storylines about abortion, a trans character, subversive literature and homelessness in between all the sex, violence and political maneuvering.
Still, it's worth picking up. The art is great--clean and easy to read. There's no studying the page for an hour trying to figure out what's going on. The writing and pacing are excellent. While some of the story is dark, there's a lot of humor too. The blue cat who keeps interrupting conversations by saying 'Lying!" every time someone says something not true is a hoot.
I like the new issues as much as the previous ones as I have seen a lot of people say it's not as good or lost it's charm which hasn't been the case for me.
I don't see many furries talking about it, at most I see people recognize lying cat and maaaybe Robot kingdom but I think furries reading comics seems to be rarer and rarer.
I just think furries don't read many 'mainstream' comics so the few anthro titles go unnoticed unless they get adaptations or just furry tastes have become highly specific. Like I'm even guilty of this, anything that is a redwall like clone I avoid as I call it the 'vengeful rodent genre' of furry comics even if I know some are very nicely illustrated.
Like I have friends I've recommended titles and gotten replies of 'I don't read comics with violence' or 'I don't read sci-fi/fantasy/etc' and I legitimately am like okay so you only read slice of life, porn or comic strips?
Which those are mostly cursed to the internet.
Funnily, Omaha the Cat Dancer recently got a nice complete edition in German, so not all furry titles are forgotten...
With that said, I have noticed that trend is reversing, with more and more stuff being made in the wider sphere by younger and very old talent. The general lean of this is towards the Redwall/Wind in the Willows style of semi-anthros more towards the animal then anthro, and also non-talking animals character stuff. It seems mostly in the vein of video games and tabletop games so not much of interest to you, but as mentioned in another post there's quite a bit in the way of euro comics where that's also happening. Kemono, anthros that aren't humans with animal bits glued on, is a rising thing in japan too, becoming big in it's indie comic scene and having the incredible variety of content that scene always has.
Not all of it is good quality (the state of dragon-centric fiction across the board is still incredibly dire), but it is something I've noticed and seems to have potential and appeal and growth, compared to this fandom which has utterly stagnated.
Should mention that the American comics industry needs to die and crumble completely before anything of any value to anything happens there. It's problems are myriad and deeply imbedded and it shows no sign of fixing itself.
(* shrugs and sighs *)
This ain't gonna be cheap!
yup, maybe that could be the reason its not popular among furballs and scalies hehe
I'm not so attracted to comics, however looks interesting. I read Elephantmen, another thing I thought furries would like but it seems like they aren't so interested, I think Elephantmen is so repetitive and sometimes they writers wanted to make it look more philosophical and deep than that actually is.
If I have the chance, maybe I'll check how it is.