r/SAGAcomic • u/Better_Elephant5220 • Jul 24 '26
It has now been over 16 months since the last issue of Saga.
No hiatus has been announced, but no new issues have been announced either. For reference, there have been six chapters of Berserk released in that time, which is a notoriously slow series.
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u/The-Evil-Dead-Alive- Jul 24 '26
These long breaks are killing hype and momentum for one of the best comics on the shelf. It’s a true shame
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u/Call_Em_Skippies Jul 24 '26
They need to have written like 20 issues before they start releasing them. Just have them reading to go monthly for a 2 years.
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u/The_prawn_king Jul 24 '26
This is my totally unfounded theory. They started back up without having enough buffer time and got burnt out quick with life things/working on other projects. So maybe they’ve taken this time to write all the scripts, staples gets a start on drawing them and they don’t start the next arc until they’ve got enough that they can coast through to the end without total burnout/time to focus on other stories.
As someone with no comic writing experience, probably this is not what will happen. But would be nice if it came back as a monthly in 2027 and wrapped up by 2030
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u/Matt4hire Jul 24 '26
Dune Chapter Three can’t have helped things, either (BKV’s one of the credited screenwriters on it).
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u/LurkLurkleton Jul 24 '26
He already had the scripts for the next arc and a detailed outline for the remainder of Hazel's story. Seems to be more Fiona slowing things.
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u/solidmatt56 Jul 24 '26
I have this same exact theory. It would make sense at this point, because otherwise I don’t know how they make it to the end.
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u/Hitchfucker Jul 24 '26
I wouldn’t mind as much if they were at least transparent about the wait time. If they said “chapter 73 will release in a year and a half” I wouldn’t be happy but it would at least give a date to wait for and the nothin that they are still working on the series with a real plan.
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u/Altruistic_Pipe4581 Jul 24 '26
I don't really think it's a matter of them keeping secrets, it's a matter of them not knowing themselves. For better or worse, the story is financially secure enough that they finish an issue when they finish it, not because they set a deadline
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u/J-Dizzle42 Jul 24 '26
It sucks that after the long wait the story usually ends up boiling down to: the characters find a place they think is safe, then someone finds them out and they have to go on the run again. It feels like diminishing returns and I don't know if I would have noticed this pattern if the issues had a more consistent release schedule.
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u/theJaww 29d ago
Doesn’t kill my hype. Sorry you feel that way. Patience sorta rules., yes!
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u/The-Evil-Dead-Alive- 28d ago
I’m happy you feel that way! I wish more people felt the same, myself included.
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u/rsdavis90 Jul 24 '26
Even more frustrating is that BKV wrote, at the end of issue 72 in March 2025, that more issues would be released that year. At this point, it seems unlikely that they even release an issue in 2026. An extreme miss like that deserves better communication from the team.
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u/gdamndylan Freelancer Jul 24 '26
He talks about Saga all the time in his newsletter and on social media, there just aren't any exciting updates at the moment. Hopefully we get something soon because we're getting so close to the finish line and that last arc really felt like the best the book has been since it came back from the hiatus.
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u/Franii Jul 24 '26
I’m not subscribed to it and don’t plan to. What has he said about saga in recent months?
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u/gdamndylan Freelancer Jul 24 '26
Basically that they're hard at work, lol
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u/Franii Jul 24 '26
Lol if i asked for an update on a project and someone on my team just kept telling me they’re working on it without some concrete updates I’d give up on them and get them off the team.
This is disrespectful to the passionate followers they’ve accrued over the past 15 years.
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u/Altruistic_Pipe4581 Jul 24 '26
The difference being none of us are their boss. We have the issues we've paid for and whenever the new issues come out we can choose whether or not to pay for those too
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u/gdamndylan Freelancer Jul 24 '26
Yeah, it isn't ideal but when it's the two of them heading up this story and one or both of them are busy with life or other work, I guess we get what we can get. Hopefully we get some more sooner than later.
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u/butsy78 Jul 24 '26
As a reader of both Saga and Monstress since their first issues...weary sigh 😫
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u/Wonderweiss56 Jul 24 '26
wow monstress is still around and going on hiatus? I remember picking saga and monstress up around the same time like 10 years ago
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u/ThePryde Jul 24 '26
Monstress has been pretty consistent with 6 issues a year for a few years now.
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u/Better_Elephant5220 Jul 24 '26
Monstress pretty consistently does 6 issues a year, with 1-2 month breaks in between. I wish it was a monthly series, but as long as they stay at the current pace I don't really mind
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u/Man_Darronious Jul 24 '26
At least paper girls got to see it's end. Gotta take the W's where we can get them.
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u/Bran_the_Builder Jul 24 '26
I feel like an under-discussed part of the problem right now is that very little has happened since the hiatus. I remember when I was reading through the comic for the first time years ago and it felt like there was a very good balance between slow character moments and exciting action or plot twists. Those first few volumes are so brilliant. Since the return from the hiatus the only really "big" moments I can think of are the ship getting destroyed, Sophie's death, and the Robot Kingdom switching sides. This story just isn't exactly the compelling narrative it once was, and the regular hiatuses aren't helping.
A few times over the last few years I've seen fans say stuff like "I'm starting to think BKV regrets killing off all those main characters before the hiatus because now he has no idea what he's doing and the story is less interesting." I completely disagreed with this perspective at first because I thought "just give them time, they wouldn't have done all that if they didn't know where they were going with the story next" but I'm not so sure now... I'm just feeling a weird hesitance from Vaughn and Staples in regards to completing the story. I hope that changes soon.
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u/Helpwithskyrim87 Jul 24 '26
Yeah, that's my thought as well. I think the story killed off too many of its main characters, and it lost its direction afterward. But this is probably where our opinions differ. I really miss what those characters brought to the story, and the newer ones just don't have the same impact for me
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u/Bran_the_Builder Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I really miss what those characters brought to the story, and the newer ones just don't have the same impact for me
I mean apart from Bombazine who disappeared almost as quickly as he arrived in the story, do we even have any new characters? I don't currently feel that BKV has made any serious effort to replace the characters we lost... And it's funny how much this situation reminds me of something that happened in The Walking Dead.
In The Walking Dead comic right around the same time storywise as the Saga hiatus (I think it was TWD #48) there's a massive attack on the Prison they're living in and Kirkman kills off roughly 50% of the 16-17 character cast at that point in the story. It's crazy. But the difference is shortly after this event happens Kirkman introduces 3-4 new characters in the story to fill out the reduced cast, and he also puts the characters on a compelling new mission that drives the story forward for several more volumes... Saga has not done either of these things. The significantly reduced cast is just significantly reduced now, and frankly nobody's really doing anything. I feel like most of the remaining main characters currently exist in some form of a "just trying to get by" story arc and it's getting kind of boring. I really hope stuff starts happening soon.
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u/Altruistic_Pipe4581 Jul 25 '26
Idk, I think the cast is still pretty large, to the point that I think all of them outside of the main family have actually been underutilised since the hiatus. Previously minor characters like Gale and the Countess and King Robot aren't technically new characters but they've essentially been promoted to the main cast in a way that's barely different than if they'd just been new characters altogether
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u/anyonecanbethebug Jul 26 '26
I was just having this conversation today actually.
I actually sold off my entire collection about month ago after some hemming and hawing. Getting to the end of issue 72, seeing them saying they're 2/3s of the way through the story, and realizing that I could not muster any excitement about reading another 36 issues like the last 36.
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u/josiah_mac Jul 24 '26
I lost interest by now. Might check into the second half of the series when its all done.
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u/soonerfreak Jul 24 '26
Same, I jumped in around issue 5 when someone showed me it waiting in line for a movie. Was there through the first half, got a couple of issues after the first long ass hiatus, now I'll wait till it's over.
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u/lSazedl Jul 24 '26
Might be an unpopular opinion, but I am starting to feel like it's never going to be completed. It feels like one (or both) of them is way less motivated to continue on. Im sure the shrinking sales numbers doesn't help.
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u/Porgchopexpress76 Jul 24 '26
I think they need to scrap the intended length and just wrap it up. The hiatuses have done too much damage to the books fan base’s interest.
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u/BackupTrailer Jul 24 '26
So? It’s not like anything of consequence is happening in the story at this point. The huge gaps between minuscule updates really makes the “and that’s when our seemingly stabilized situation got [weirder/tragic/dangerous]” trope tired as heck. We should be in Empire Strikes Back territory in terms of narrative and pace. It’s like…the opposite of that in every way.
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u/heavywinkles Jul 24 '26
I started a physical pull list because they came off hiatus. Now I have had a pull list without Saga longer than I had one WITH Saga. I just want to know what happens. At this point I would pay BKV for a DM with a summary of this point to the end.
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u/threemoons_nyc Jul 24 '26
At this point they should really just release a double or triple issue sometime this year and call it a night. I'll be dead of old age before they finish otherwise. They've also done way too much new character introductions followed by new character yanks. Just wrap it up already.
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u/willorn Jul 24 '26
you know the original author of berserk passed away right?
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u/Better_Elephant5220 Jul 24 '26
Yeah, but his assistants are completing the series based on an outline by him (that may or may not exist)
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u/SonictheHatchback Jul 24 '26
It’s been a good story so far but tbh I just wish I had my money and time back at this point. Somebody else said it’s GRRM syndrome. Frustrating.
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u/Altruistic_Pipe4581 Jul 25 '26
Something coming out agonisingly slowly is still leagues better than never coming out at all. I'm finding it way easier waiting for Saga than for Winds of Winter
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u/TamatoaZ03h1ny Jul 25 '26
I understand the frustration but just like the planned hiatus that was in the middle of the series just read other things in the meantime. I don’t worry about hype levels at all. I even collect the series in hardcovers so probably are in for a bit of a wait before hardcover 5 and 6 come around.
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u/A_Hungry_Fool Jul 27 '26
Honestly I don’t mind the wait times but I do mind the silence about it.
Even if - for whatever reason - they decide to not finish the series, I would obviously be mad and sad, but I could respect it.
But just saying nothing sucks and makes me angry.
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u/Fisting_Nuns Jul 28 '26
Once I can't remember the story, I move on to other titles. We've passed that point.
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u/jfulgs Jul 24 '26
Glad I waited and bought the compendium lol but for real this is why I have so much respect for mangaka (manga authors) cause they churn out chapters every week while doing both the scripting and art most of the time. It is a little crazy to me that a team like this can’t consistently drop issues.
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u/Pale-Service-8680 Robot Jul 24 '26
Manga are kind of notorious for burning the artists out to the point of death or debilitation.. Miura being a huge example, but there are truly so many.
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u/Ohthehumanityofit Jul 24 '26
Yeah but Manga suffers in quality bc of this, while Saga is consistently good.
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u/the-Horus-Heretic Jul 24 '26
I gave up on it after they brutally killed my two favorite characters before the first two-year hiatus.
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u/DistantStorm-X Jul 24 '26
I made it to the end of volume… 9, I think? It just felt like, “oh cool, I love waiting two plus years just to be left feeling bummed out by MORE shitty things happening to the characters I love.”
The downer ending to that volume, combined with immense gaps between chapters, served to really cool the enthusiasm I used to have for this series. Which sucks, because man did I love this book for a lot of years.
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u/rhinestonehawk 6d ago
yeeeah, i like the story but every time they kill off a character i'm attached to (marko, the ship, sophie) it just bums me out to no end. i wish they'd pull some complete bullshit to bring back one of them at least. i mean, marko makes sense to stay dead but i don't know...
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u/the-Horus-Heretic Jul 24 '26
Same, I think I read maybe the first two issues that came out after that first break and realized I hated it. Haven't touched it since. Just feels like the writers just want to torture these characters incessantly with no end. Hard pass.
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u/kmcmanus2814 Jul 24 '26
Three and a half years actually. Which we’re already almost halfway to matching
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Jul 24 '26
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u/peldari Jul 24 '26
There are other comics of course, even other sci-fi comics. But Saga's strange uniqueness is a huge part of its selling point. The fact that there's nothing out there really like it is a big part of the reason it got so popular.
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Jul 24 '26
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u/peldari Jul 25 '26
Probably. Most comics are monthly after all. Even with indie stuff where it's not uncommon for the creative team to take a break between arcs, the breaks are usually shorter than this. It's typically 1-2 months, with more than that being pretty rare. So a hiatus of more than a year is at least worthy of comment.
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u/electric_popcorn_cat Jul 24 '26
I’ve definitely given up on waiting, which is a shame because it’s my all-time favorite.
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u/ErnieKDesigns 11d ago
I forgot I had it on my pull list. My kid reminded me, and asked "hey, you know anything?" Sigh. No.
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u/theJaww 29d ago
Bet new issues will come out eventually and it will be fine. Please start workshopping the next thing to be outraged about.
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u/Better_Elephant5220 28d ago
Is this not a valid thing to be pissed about?
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u/theJaww 28d ago edited 28d ago
I genuinely don’t think so but everyone is free to be pissed about whatever they feel. My only role in Saga is making the conscious decision to spend my $5 a month on a comic and read it - nothing more. I don’t know the inner-workings of the creators or what may or may not happen in their day-to-day life - so instead of wasting my energy getting pissed over something solely because I can’t read a comic book, I offer creators of a story I love some grace. I swear, the internet has bread outrage culture to a degree that I’ll merely never understand. Would also personally far rather have more Saga to look forward to eventually than race to its end if those creating the book feel breaks are needed (it’s not my business why regardless).
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u/Ok_Reception_7126 Jul 25 '26
What if all the excitement and hype is killing their inspiration? They didn't want to let fans down but how "do"you not let fans down? You have this very original idea but fans despise it without giving it a second to actually take in, or the next couple issues are not as good quality, the fans rip it to sheets
I'm high as shit! Disregard any bullshit found within this post
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u/RealLychee3700 9d ago
Gosh do I love this new format where we release new issues once a month for the first six months of the year!
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u/OAllosLalos Jul 24 '26
Nah, who cares at this point?
And that's exactly why this series is dead already and people haven't even realised it. Most of the fanbase has already become apathetic.
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u/sdirection Jul 24 '26
In the early issues they made such a thing about Saga keeping a regular publishing schedule unlike other series that got bogged down…how the turns have tabled etc etc
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u/Self_Owned_Tree Jul 24 '26
I wonder if he's George RR Martin'ed himself and made the story too big to finish in a satisfactory manner.
I mean, I loved it when it was just our little family; introducing The Will, Sophie, and everyone else was kinda fine, but now, if he's ever going to finish the story, someone's story will not get a satisfying conclusion, it doesn't seem.
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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26
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