An argument could be made that a comic book as epic and ambitious in scope as Saga would be better served as a film. But fans of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples creator-owned masterwork would likely tell you an hour of Saga once a week over the span of 10 to 12 weeks, is much better than a single two hour-plus film. Besides, Saga has been described by critics as Star Wars meets Game of Thrones. Given the astronomical success of both series in film and television respectively, Saga is destined for success somewhere beyond the realm of comics. Making a case for Saga for television is its cast of extraordinarily likeable and unique characters, who would be given ample time to develop in a serial format. The two series protagonists, Alana and Marko, are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Sagas featured players, as theres also the grotesque but friendly ghost Izabel; the bizarre, television-for-a-head blue blood Prince Robot IV; the Han Solo-esque charismatic bounty hunter The Will; Markos parents; and Markos vengeful ex-fiancee Gwendolyn. And Lying Cat though maybe Lying Cat can be left out of this (lying). The series would take viewers to fascinating new worlds and feature brutal battles that would incorporate large set pieces a la Game of Thrones. While this could become cost prohibitive for network television, a premium cable channel like HBO could handle it, plus then Saga would be allowed to cut loose with some of its crude and very sexual content (which contributed to specific issues of the series being banned by Apples iTunes store). The one catch is Vaughan has been very adamant about not wanting to adapt Saga for any other medium at the present time. In a 2013 interview with Time magazine, Vaughan said the whole point of Saga was to do absolutely everything I couldnt do in a movie or a TV show. Im really happy with it just being a comic. So maybe we should just give Vaughan his space and not demand to have this amazing series on television. Lying.
Mark is a professional writer living in Brooklyn and is the founder of the Chasing Amazing Blog, which documents his quest to collect every issue of Amazing Spider-Man, and the Superior Spider-Talk podcast. He also pens the "Gimmick or Good?" column at Comics Should Be Good blog.
