Farewell to Strangers in Paradise

Having recently given Lynn Johnston a very hard time, I thought I should say a few nice words about Terry Moore, another cartoonist who's ending a work that represents a now-bygone publishing era of cartooning.

I began reading Strangers In Paradise twelve years ago. My attitudes toward romance and writing have changed since then, but the series still resonates, because it was part of my development. Its second volume, number 11 (or was it 10? Sorry, it was twelve years ago), contained one of the most powerful sequences I had read at the time, and it was a huge influence on how I developed the character of Rikk. Moore's approach to characterization in general was something I studied closely and tried to emulate. And his shameless mixing of drama with melodrama (bisexual love triangle, meet global Mafia!) opened my mind to new story possibilities.

I kept some distance from the series in its later years, checking in every few issues. Hard to say why, because in most ways it seemed about the same as it ever was-- but maybe that was the problem. Moore had set up a large-scale story with a beginning, middle and ending, and at some point, he sidetracked into a cycle of plot twists and countertwists that seemed to change everything but, in the long run, changed nothing that couldn't be changed back. If that sounds familiar, it should: it's a narrative weakness that DC and Marvel have fallen into almost out of necessity. Call it "direct market's disease."

But that problem has melted away in the series' last year. The final installment, on sale now, is the very definition of dramatic payoff, and I have a hunch those middle installments will look a lot better to me when I reread them knowing a payoff is coming.

Last issue highly recommended, if you know the series. If not, start with the second volume (much better than the first), and work your way back, then forward, from there.