A humanoid robot prince with a television for a head; a half-human, half-spider diva bounty hunter; and a planet-sized version of Amsterdam's red-light district. These are just some of the characters and sights in the sci-fi universe of “Saga,†a new Image Comics series written by Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Fiona Staples.
The first collection lands at No. 6 on the graphic books paperback best-seller list this week. While many of the book's ideas are from the mind of Mr. Vaughan - who also co-created popular comic series including “Y: The Last Man†and “Ex Machina†- he has found a worthy collaborator in Ms. Staples. Her designs, expressions and coloring all make “Saga†look unlike anything else c urrently on the stands.
In a recent phone interview, Ms. Staples discussed the visual side of the book.
(As always, the complete lists can be found here, along with an explanation of how they were assembled.)
There's a lot of world-building going on over the course of this book, as the characters are traveling to different planets and locales. Are descriptions of the various places they visit already in the script?
The first day we met, Brian gave me this packet he called the “Saga Mini-bible.†It was a run down of the cast of characters and the first few locations and short descriptions of the characters. He'll explain a little bit about the setting and environment and I will extrapolate and embellish.
What about the character design? The Stalk seems to be an early favorite.
I try not to over-c omplicate it because it's already out there and pretty weird. For the Stalk, she was described as a tall, very pale white woman with no arms like the Venus de Milo and a long black skirt with hideous arms underneath where each hand has a weapon.
Where do you get some of your inspirations for the book?
Mainly from various locations in the real world. Like the planet Cleave in the book, for example, has some rooms that were inspired by Cambodian architecture. I take real locations and exaggerate certain aspects.
Anything from popular culture?
Animated movies like the early Disney stuff and the Japanese film “Tekkonkinkreet.†That has these beautiful painted backgrounds with flat character animation, and that sort of thing inspired the whole look of “Saga.â€
The lettering for the narration, which is bein g said or written by a character at some unknown point in the future of the story, is hand-lettered by you, correct?
Yeah, that's the last thing I do after I finish the artwork on the page.
Is that your normal handwriting?
Yeah, it is. Because we don't know anything about Hazel or what she is like as a person. I don't really know anything about handwriting, so I didn't want to worry about it too much. I'm just going to use my regular writing and just make sure it's legible.
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