I am by nature pretty prudish, and even though I’ve been successfully dialing that down recently, I still feel weird about having read this and even weirder about acknowledging that on a public website. That said, I’ve always felt like I should give this a try since it’s well regarded in comics, and after a few failed attempts in earlier, more prudish years, I powered my way through this complete edition over the past few days.

I get why this gets the acclaim that it does. It’s a really good comic. It is full of metahumor, panels are packed full of gags and details, and there are interesting callbacks throughout. It is also, despite being full of sex jokes, surprisingly deep and meaningful, and I think it deserves credit for that, too.

At the end of the day, though, I’m adding this to my list of “I get why this gets the praise that it does, but I’m kind of ’eh’ about it” comics. Maybe it’s because I’m still prudish? Maybe because I got married young to the first person I dated, and I just don’t get media about relationships? Maybe it’s because creative swearing is not my thing?

Saga took several tries to land for me, but it’s now a book I’d consider buying a complete edition of one day. I… don’t see that happening with this title? I’ve read the whole run, I’m glad I did, but I don’t see myself coming back to it.

• Sex Criminals
• comics
• Saga
• Chip Zdarsky
• Matt Fraction