Strangers In Paradise Pocket Book 6

by Terry Moore

While I was reading the fourth and fifth books of the Pocket Book versions of Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise (these nice, chunky editions are the way to read this series), I found myself getting a little bored, as I feared that the series was getting repetitive.  The sixth volume though, is excellent.

This book contains the last fourteen issues of the comic, and Moore used all fourteen issues to wrap the series up in an emotional and satisfying manner.  He resolves the long-running 'will they or won't they' question of Francine and Katchoo's relationship.  Also resolved is the love triangle involving David, Katchoo, and Casey, in a very emotional section of the book.

Often with long running, character-driven series, it's hard to say good-bye to characters that a reader has come to feel a lot of affection for.  I can understand why Moore went for a (mostly) happy ending, and I appreciate it.  The characters that make up the cast of this series are some very lovable people, and it's nice to see them all get a chance to shine and show their better nature.  Even Freddie Femur, the bumbling lawyer and misogynist freak gets a chance to demonstrate maturity and kindness.  Tambi, the amazon warrior demonstrates a softer side as well, and Casey becomes a very likeable character over the course of the book. 

Reading this volume on its own is impossible, so I would strongly recommend checking out this series from the beginning.  Getting through the two volumes that drag a little is worth it when you come to this volume.

Strangers in Paradise Pocket Book 5

by Terry Moore

As much as I generally love Strangers In Paradise, there are many series, be they in comics, television, movies, or novels that sometimes simply go on too long.  Reading this collection, I kept thinking to myself that perhaps Moore should have finished his comic book romantic comedy sooner.

Actually, it's difficult to call this series a romantic comedy, as it touches on many other genres, most notably gangster-thriller.  When this book, the fifth of six, opens, we see what happened during David Qin's yakuza days, and learn why he chose that name for himself.  From there, we get a smattering of storylines that are picked up and dropped on a whim.

Katchoo and David are reunited, and possibly married.  They go to Las Vegas to visit Casey, who is now a showgirl, and end up helping her friend, who has a stalker.  Katchoo becomes a success in the art world, and opens her own studio.  Her sister, Tambi, becomes a government black ops operator.  Francine's mother reveals to the world that she used to be a pin-up girl, and decides to cash in on it.  Francine gets a tattoo.  Freddie falls for a medical examiner, who is working on a suicide bomber case that kind of disappears.  Strangely, and perhaps fatally for this book, Francine and Katchoo don't see each other until the very last few pages (of the SiP part - more on that shortly).

Moore is a master at character work, but characters aren't enough to keep a book going after the plot ends.  With each new chapter, it feels like he's casting about for a reason to continue, and only rarely finds it.  I hope that the next, final volume, has more substance to it.

A large chunk of this book is taken up with the collected, bizarre story of Molly & Poo.  This is another unrequited love story, written in prose by the character of Molly, who is trying to get her story published.  She loses it and kills her husband, and continues to write about these events as if she were a character in them, but in a story set 90 years prior.  This is a good showcase for Moore's sense of experimentation, but it ultimately didn't work for me, and I found myself skipping the prose parts.

Strangers in Paradise Pocket Book Vol. 4

by Terry Moore, with Jimmy Palmiotti

I think it's time for me to take a little break from Terry Moore's award-winning and famous series for a little while.  I do find myself completely enthralled in the lives and tribulations of Francine, Katchoo, and all their friends, but I'm also finding reading these thick books so close to one another to be a little exhausting.

In the first three volumes, each of which contain some seventeen comics, there have been complete story arcs, which have always involved Katina Choovanski's past rearing up to haunt her, and to drag her and her will-she or won't-she best friend and wannabe lover into a maelstrom of violence.  In this fourth volume, that doesn't really happen.  Instead, Francine gets engaged, becomes pregnant, breaks off her engagement, returns to Katchoo, they fight, Francine goes back to Brad, and the whole cycle keeps repeating itself.

I feel like perhaps,that Moore was starting to cast about for some new ideas to keep the series alive.  We have a number of new characters (a psychiatrist, a rape victim, an FBI Agent digging into Katchoo's past), and old characters gaining new prominence, as Casey becomes close to Katchoo, and Tambi becomes close to David, for a little while at least.  We meet a couple more of the Parker Girls, deadly assassins and former operatives of Darcey Parker, Katchoo's old boss.

Moore also plays around a little more than usual with time, and tries his hand at some metatextuality, such as in the scene where Francine's grown daughter tries to sell the manuscript of her gigantic novel, which is basically a text version of this comic, and which asks some questions about how much of this comic is really taking place.  Actually, I found that kind of annoying, as it was abandoned almost immediately.

Still, strange tricks and circular plotting aside, this is an endlessly engaging and readable comic.  I look forward to reading the next two volumes, but I do need a bit of a break.

Strangers in Paradise Pocket Edition Vol. 3

by Terry Moore

Now that I've read three of these mammoth pocket-book sized collections of Terry Moore's epic Strangers In Paradise series, I beginning to see a pattern emerge in the storytelling.

Each of these books (which collects about nineteen comics) starts with some kind of mundane plot about Francine and Katchoo (Katina Choovanski) getting in to some sort of argument or disagreement, which jeopardizes their friendship and budding romance.  Then, they split on one another somehow, and don't reunite until some sort of threat from Katchoo's sordid past appears.  David, who loves Katchoo, is almost always caught in the middle, and at some point, the story is going to jump into the far future, where the two friends have not seen each other for some years, and both are miserable.

This volume opens that way, with Francine furious that Katchoo has chosen to exhibit very large paintings of her in the nude.  They fight about this, David learns that he has inherited his sister's fortune (Darcy Parker was an organized crime boss), and David and Katchoo fly away, only to have their plane crash.

From here, Moore abandons the lighter plots that make it a joy to read, and instead gives us a dark (although frequently funny) tale that has Katchoo working with Tambi, one of the remaining Parker girls who has a plan to take over the Big Six, but only with her help.  Francine nurses David back to health at her mother's, and is poised to find the elusive happiness she's always dreamed of, when the two friends are reunited, and stuck in yet another series of violent events.

I am very surprised at the balance that Moore is able to find between the fun, romantic comedy side of this book, and the darker, more intrigue-oriented stuff.  All of these characters, even the pathetically eager Casey, are very endearing, and they make this book the stuff of compulsive, stay up too late reading.  It's very good stuff.

Strangers in Paradise Pocket Book 2

by Terry Moore

It's hard to know what to expect with Terry Moore's classic series Strangers In Paradise.  On the surface, it's a light romantic comedy about a love triangle between close friends Francine and Katchoo, and David, the man who is in love with Katchoo.

The girls argue and joke around a lot, and constantly dance around their attraction towards one another.  Well, that's not entirely true, Katchoo is openly gay; it's Francine who can't figure out what she wants.  David has entered the mix, and is seriously interested in Kat, but early on in this second volume (which collects the first seventeen issues of third series), they get into a huge argument that drives David away for good.  Kat decides to follow him to California to apologize, and to bring him back.

That's more or less where the rom-com stuff ends, because David is the brother to Darcey Parker, a powerful mobster who used to be Kat's lover and pimp.  Darcey wants to use Katchoo to help her with an elaborate plan to win control over the White House.  Another one of her girls is positioned to marry the front-runner in the Presidential elections, and to draw heat off of her, she wants Kat to seduce the wife of the Senator who runs an committee investigating organized crime.  Not so funny, now.  Except, it still is.

Moore really found a winning formula with this series.  We all want to see Francine and Kat get together and help heal each other, but it always seems like such a long, dangerous road.  It doesn't much help that there is a framing device used that shows how, in ten or more years, the two women aren't even talking.  Moore sets these things up, and then doesn't return to them for fifteen issues or so - it must have been frustrating to read this comic as a monthly.

We are also given a nice flashback sequence that shows how the girls developed their friendship in high school, and, very oddly, an issue that is more or less a tribute to Xena, Warrior Princess that doesn't fit with the larger narrative at all.

In terms of strong character-driven comics, I can think of very few that can hold a candle to Strangers in Paradise.  Recommended.

Strangers in Paradise Pocket Book Vol. 1

by Terry Moore

I know I'm very late in coming to this comic, but I'd never thought it would interest me before, for much the same reasons that I've never read Love and Rockets.  It just never seemed like my thing, but I really enjoyed Moore's Echo, and I'm always looking to expand what 'my thing' is when it comes to comics.

These Pocket Editions are a great way to read Strangers in Paradise.  This first volume contains sixteen issues of the series - the three-issue first volume, and the first thirteen issues of the second.  The series revolves around a strange love triangle.

Francine has trust issues.  Her relationship with Freddie Femurs (the fourth point on the triangle, if that makes sense) has gone nowhere, and Francine would be a total mess if it weren't for her best friend Katchoo (Katina Choovanski).  The problem is that Katchoo has a very secretive past, and is herself in love with Francine.  Then David enters the picture.  He's madly in love with Katchoo, and she is beginning to have feelings for him too.

Then Katchoo's past begins to catch up with her, in the form of a gangster madam who is looking for some missing money.  Lots of other things happen in this comic, but that's the very condensed explanation of things.

This book moves wildly from light comedy to serious drama, often unpredictably.  Any scene with Freddie, who despite being engaged to someone new, still has feelings for Francine, becomes ridiculous in no time, but other parts of the book can shift quickly from one extreme to another.  There are some lengthy prose sections which I think really took from my enjoyment of the book, but otherwise, I think the Strangers in Paradise have found a new fan, and I've found a new series to collect.