Saga #54 arrived on July 25, 2018. Before it was released, it was, at least on the surface, just an ordinary issue of the Image series from writer Brian K. Vaughan, artist Fiona Staples, and letterer Fonografiks, albeit an arc ender, so one with a high probability of notable events happening within its page. If you read it, you know that something notable did happen within its pages, plot wise, but the most extraordinary part of it might have come in the “To Be Continued” section Vaughan tackles at the end of each issue. Saga was going to have an intermission “for at least the next year.”

“At least” was a crucial part of that sentence.

1,281 days, 42.12 months, and 3.51 years later later, 13 Saga returned with its 55th issue. As noted last week, it has not lost a step in the process, creatively speaking. Saga remains exceptional, easily as great as it was before, and it was an absolute delight for this reader to stop by my local shop and say, “One copy of Saga #55, please.” 14 There was little doubt I’d be back, though. I’m a Wednesday Warrior, through and through, and a massive fan of the whole creative team. Being back onboard with Saga was a lock.

Questions loomed about others, though. I remember when the title’s return was announced, some retailers publicly wondered whether the audience would as well. After all, 1,281 days, 42.12 months and 3.51 years is a long time. Maybe the readership moved on? I doubted that, and noted that on Off Panel multiple times. But some level of skepticism remained, even if it was Saga, a massive hit that’s almost beyond compare in the direct market.

Unsurprisingly, with questions abound, I wanted to find answers. So that’s what I did. Since its release, I chatted up a selection of shops via email and phone – not a representative sample, of course, just enough to get a feel for what the Saga vibes were from fans – hoping to dig into one of the most anticipated returns in recent comic memory. That’s what we’re going to do today, as we answer ten questions about Saga’s prophesied comeback.

1. Is Saga still popular?

Yes.

2. How popular?

Extremely popular.

3. Can you get more specific, maybe?

Saga #55 was so popular that Third Eye Comics’ Annapolis location had 75 people in line to get it at midnight.

It’s so popular that it effectively single-handedly resulted in around 25% more transactions the Wednesday of its release at Chicago’s Challengers Comics + Conversation then they usually see on an average Wednesday. 15

It’s so popular that Rochester, New Hampshire’s Jetpack Comics was getting a bevy sign-ups for mail-order subscriptions just so customers could have the ability to pay $9 to get this comic. 16

It’s so popular it convinced trade waiters to buy it in single issues, just because they were so thrilled about Saga’s return.

4. Wait, really?

Yes! Patrick Brower of Challengers told me that in his over 30 years of working in comics retail, he had never seen this level of format shifting before. They expected it after the first trade of Saga had dropped. It just didn’t happen. It did with #55. They saw a bunch of people making the transition. Multiple shops reported the same thing. That’s because Saga’s absence did, in fact, make the heart grow fonder.

Not all these readers are going to be permanent single-issue readers, of course. Katie Pryde from Portland’s Books with Pictures told me that 30 of her shop’s 70 pre-orders for #55 were from trade readers who only signed up for that one issue. They were switching back to trade after that. These customers just really missed Saga and wanted to be a part of its return. But that’s perhaps even more unusual than completely switching from trades to single issues. Most of the time you’re one or another, and never the twain shall meet. Well, the twain met when Saga came back, because Saga’s not your average comic.

5. Who were these customers?

Some were your regular old Wednesday Warriors, like yours truly. But a lot of them were lapsed readers. When I quizzed Bruno Batista of Dublin’s Big Bang Comics whether that was lapsed comic readers or lapsed Saga readers, he asked in response, “Why not both?” It turns out a whole bunch of Saga fans just…completely stopped reading comics when it went on hiatus! And then, just in time for its comeback, they returned. I’ve heard in the past that Marvel’s line can have that kind of impact, because when they’re on, sales are up for every publisher, and when Marvel is off, everyone suffers. But a single comic doing that? Never.

Saga has that kind of area of effect, it seems. A noticeable number of these customers were just gone for three and a half years.