Strangers In Paradise #90 (series finale)

Posted by Jeb on June 9, 2007

(Abstract Studio)

How long has it been since you picked up an issue of Strangers in Paradise? Probably been a few years, I“m guessing. In my case, I stopped reading regularly some time back around issue #40 or so, and I don“t think I“ve read an individual issue since someplace in the low 60“s. Why? Same reason as you: it felt as though this marvelous series had been spinning its wheels. In fact, it“s felt that way for quite some time: any reader can see that “girl-next-door” Francine and “wild child” Katchoo belong together, but writer-artist Terry Moore has always refused to move them past such impediments as Katchoo“s dangerous past and Francine“s uncertainty about having feelings for another woman. And any time they get close, either misunderstandings or mobsters intervene, and we start all over again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

As the series finale approached, I borrowed some recent trade paperback collections with the intention of getting caught up, but I fell far enough behind that I figured the hell with it, I“d just see if I could follow the story in #90 armed only with my knowledge of the book“s first few years. It was a bittersweet discovery to find that I could.

Without getting into overt spoilers, I“ll just say that there is finally resolution (some of which Moore has previously shown us in “flash-forward” sequences over the years), and the few “surprises” proffered are far less surprising to us than they are to the characters in the story. While I understand the dictum that every issue of a comic is someone“s first, and that accessibility to new readers can be very important, it really shouldn“t be possible to drop a series for a few years and pick it up again without missing a beat: something ought to have changed in those years: particularly since, as is his wont, Moore offers no recap of “the story so far” for new readers. It“s one thing for a corporate trademark like Superman to go on for decades virtually unchanged, quite another for a creator-owned series to grow so static.

And I“m not sure if this has been the case for a while, but Moore“s art feels a bit sketchier than I“m used to seeing it, with all but the most essential details stripped out. Doesn“t make it any less expressive, but it does seem a bit odd when placed side by side with some of the earlier issues.

It may sound as though I“m being dismissive of the book, but I’m not really. You see, while Moore isn“t giving us anything in the way of storytelling that he hasn“t before, he still retains his two greatest gifts: a great ear for dialogue, and the ability to draw the most expressive faces in the business. The bulk of this issue has Francine and Katchoo simply sitting and talking with Tambi (Katchoo“s half-sister) and Casey (who“s been a romantic rival to half the characters in the series), and yet every panel feels fresh and alive. Subtle details of posture are also a Moore specialty, and you could read this book without word balloons and understand most of what“s going on. Smiles, frowns, gestures of tenderness, of reserve, of passion or compassion… Terry Moore never ceases to amaze and move us with these. The story“s conclusion may be sentimental, but it“s sentiment that“s been well-earned with every stroke of his pen. I“ve re-read it about a half dozen times already.

I can“t really say I“m sorry to see this series end—in my opinion, it more or less wrapped itself up years back, and closure was way past due—but I will miss these two women, and I“m grateful to have those early trade collections to re-read. Even if he didn“t find enough interesting things for them to do over the past few years, Terry Moore created two of the most memorable characters, of either gender, in the history of American comic books.  And their sendoff here, predictable though it might have been, is, in its own way, perfection.

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