Award Winning Comic Book Epic Saga ft. on TV

Unfortunately it's for a boob joke on Big Bang Theory.

The Vol. 1 Trade Paperback collection, cover, that get's a mention.

Saga, the winner of all three Eisner Awards it was nominated for in 2013: Best Continuing Series, Best New Series and Best Writer. The book whose Vol. 1 trade paperback won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story. The series that was nominated for seven 2013 Harvey Awards, and won six of them: Best Writer, Best Artist, Best Color, Best New Series, Best Continuing or Limited Series, and Best Single Issue or Story. The series that in 2014 won three Eisners: Best Painter/Multimedia Artist, Best Writer, and Best Continuing Series. That then continued to dominate in 2015 when the series was again nominated for the same three Eisner awards it won the previous year  and won two of them: Best Continuing Series and Best Penciller/Inker. The all around amazing, beast of a book, was recently featured on a prime time TV show: 

So that sex-pest character, Howard, can poke fun of Raj, for looking for covers with boobs/ breast feeding on them. 

Bleeding Cool captured the scene for all to see. Raj (Kunal Nayyar) comments on Claire's (guest star Alessandra Torresani) reading material. Specifically, Raj references "Saga" #1's "controversial", which featured series lead Alana breastfeeding her child. Controversial to perhaps the hundred people who actually make up "one million mom's" and generally bad people who hate natural things that humans do.

Fiona Staples, Artist of Saga, at a signing.
More equally awesome women need to get into comics.

Despite the general outpouring on twitter by fans of the book, being generally overjoyed that it was getting featured on such a huge show, I feel differently. I seem to be in the minority here. While Big Bang Theory typically only features capes and tights, superhero comics, even then mostly just DC at that, it is Warner Bros after all. I welcome the change, that we get to see the other side of the coin, and see some really good uses of the medium and not having it be stereotyped as a genre. Which if you are interested in reading more about: The Guardian Newspaper in the UK did a great write up about the current resurgence of creator owned and generally none superhero books recently.

Kelly Sue, a brilliant writer, featured in the Guardian article.
Not to mention a great female role model for Comics in general.

I've said it before but i'll say it again, the way this show badly portrays stereotypes about its characters, and essentially, main fan base, is just insane. Lonely Raj looks for the boobs on the covers of books, very mature joke. Well done writer-guys! Need any more help picking those low-hanging-fruit jokes about stereotypes? Perhaps the Jewish guy doesn't like paying $4 for a comic? I'll wait for my cheque in the post for that writing I just did. 

Now before you scream "Why are you watching it if you don't like it" etc. etc. My girlfriend is a big fan, so I tolerate it as much as I possibly can. It can get the occasional laugh out of me too. Lord knows she puts up with me watching Doctor Who, among other things. It's called compromise.

This show has forced the "comics aren't for girls" stereotype for so long, that I was a little shocked to see a clip of a female in a comic shop full stop. I once caught an episode where the main female cast went into the comic shop and Stuart suggested reading Fables because it's fairy tales or Thor because he's hot. The show's just sexist. 

Now it's not all compromises, my girlfriend loves the Nolan Batman movies and all the Marvel movies so you'd think the odd comic here and there wouldn't be a big step..? Yet she won't join me in reading them. She's a fan of procedural cop shows too, so I've recommended Gotham Central and Criminal for her. Both are amazing, and I'm pretty sure both are Eisner winners in their own right. But shows like this have it ingrained into the zeitgeist that women don't have a role in nerd fandoms. Which is wrong, and sexist.

It's nowhere near as bad as it used to be. At least we've got female scientists and it's not just "hey Penny's an idiot, because she went to community college" still. Anyone else notice that Howard and Raj used to constantly try to get laid in the early series and so did Penny but more successfully. So it's depressing which of the three has the "Slutty one" jokes though isn't it? Double standard much.

Speaking of Double standards, you never see the guys in skimpy... Oh.
Oh, gawd. 

I remember an episode where they needed Penny to dress as Wonder Woman so they could win a costume competition basically because she would be the only woman in the shop. Have you seen the typical cosplayer? It's much more female centric than male if UK conventions are anything to go by. Plenty of women read comics. More would without this show telling them it's not ok to. Any chance we could get a female comics every-woman to compliment the Leonard everyman character? 

Upon re-watching the earlier series, Penny was the most relatable character for me and I'm at my comic shop spending £30+ each week, self publishing small press comics, exhibiting at and visiting conventions a lot each year. So why do the nerds seem so unlikeable? The reason (for me) seems to be that you share the same interests as them not the same character traits, and a lot of the characters are plain unlikable. 

A lot of the characters have grown and changed, Penny is now more financially stable than Leonard etc. Then I catch a relatively recent episode, season 8 I believe, where the gang are fixing a broken drone with a hi-def camera and despite now being married Howard's first line is along the lines of "where was this when I was single I could have flown it over the playboy mansion".

I'm just worried about how it makes me, and others who share my hobbies and interests, look to outsiders and the mainstream audience it pulls in each week. The entire premise of the show is "look, geeks". It's laughing at you not along with you. That's why they phrase jokes like "it's as cold as the ice planet Hoth from Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back" rather than just "It's as cold as Hoth". So the mainstream see how different/ weird you are.

The epic oversized hardcover collection of the first 3 volumes of Saga.
A great place to start reading this amazing book.
Clearly Howard didn't look far enough when trying to hunt down
breastfeeding, winged ladies on covers.

The ratings this show gets could make all of these things like comics, gaming, tv and movies the coolest must have things out there but it doesn't it does the opposite. Back to the point: boobs on a comic book cover, jokes, not the fact that saga is an amazing space epic that rivals Star Wars.

Sure it is a lot better for having the new female characters and it's no where near as bad as it once was though. The show is better for having a more well rounded cast. Someone recently pointed out to me that this is a Chuck Lorre series, the same guy who created Two and a Half Men, so why would I expect something different? Am I worrying over nothing? Is the show a good thing? Getting comics exposure and hoping there's some minimal feed over from the TV viewership into your Local Comic Shop is always a good thing, right? Unless you're literally pointing out the horrible human being you become if that stuff winds up floating your boat.