I don’t know how many people here have read Strangers in Paradise, Terry Moore’s brilliant, strange, award-winning comics about three friends, but the series comes to a definitive end in May, 2007. The entire run should read like the world’s longest graphic novel.
No comments
Hmmm. So I’m thinking my idea to review the entire run through the trade paperbacks wouldn’t be a big hit with this group.
Anyone (other than our sponsor, of course) interested?
Re: No comments
Guess I’d be the only one.
World’s Longest?
Are you joking? Look at Cerebus, at 300 issues, for one that’s a wee bit longer.
Re: hyperbole
Look at the run of any number of comics, of course. But I can think of few that have Stranger‘s internal coherence and structure across the entire run.
Re: hyperbole
Don’t brush off Dave Sim’s masterwork with such an offhand comment. Again: Dave Sim announced that Cerebus would end at 300 very early on, and says that he decided to do so from the beginning – the story included a number of prophecies and interwoven themes that only became clear on a large scale. That’s really different from Guys in Spandex happening to end at issue #243 because nobody bought it anymore. Without ruining too much, Cerebus has definite phases to its overall story that only make complete sense as part of the unified whole.
Moore himself says that it took quite a while before he decided how long Strangers would be – he could have ended it earlier with just the three arcs, but kept tacking stuff on until he decided it was enough.
Seriously, this isn’t to dis Strangers, which is a fine book – but if you want scale, take the (rather substantial, but you can get it in definite chapter-sized pieces) time and check out Cerebus.