“What most people don’t know about love, sex, and relations with other human beings would fill a book. Strangers in Paradise is that book.”
–Neil Gaiman

She keeps a moet de something
in a pretty cabinet…
–Francine sings along to Queen.¹

Though I was certainly aware of Moore’s Strangers in Paradise, it was not until I bought the High School! back issues for a friend that I finally read and got hooked. The sixth trade paperback tells the story behind the series’ opening pages and the origin of Francine and Katchoo’s friendship.

It also features a stand-alone Xena parody, “Princess Warrior.”

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“Oh, God. No.”

“You’d be surprised how many people say that in the end. I always tell them the same thing… God’s not with us.”

A crime-caesar and a crime-brutus

The Strangers in Paradise chapter or story arc that began with Love Me Tender finishes with Immortal Enemies. The fifth trade paperback, it takes Moore’s comic series/graphic novel into conspiracy-theory territory, not for the last time.

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Strangers in Paradise may not be as hot right now as Infinite Crisis or Civil War (which Fiz will be reviewing presently, and which I cautiously recommend), but Terry Moore’s series has much to recommend it. My review of the entire series, which ends next year, continues with Love Me Tender. The fourth trade paperback, it is an excellent example of what draws many readers to this series.

It also features a great superhero parody sequence by Jim Lee, with an apparent cameo by Bruce Wayne.

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Some kind of scarab crawled into me and put this suit on me and now… I’m in space with Batman. Looking for an invisible satellite.
–Blue Beetle, evidently having one of those, don’t ask sorts of days.

The saga that began with Infinite Crisis #1 comes to a somewhat disappointing conclusion. The finale promises some interesting developments for the DC Universe, but nothing that required this highly confusing story as their harbinger. It’s the comic-business as usual; routine retcons, super-hype, and a few good moments.

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Two weeks ago I had it made.
Two weeks ago I was dead.

My review of Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise series continues with It’s a Good Life, the third trade paperback.

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As the series heads into its final year, I continue my review of the entire run of Terry Moore’s landmark Strangers in Paradise. I Dream of You, second and lengthiest of the trade paperbacks, collects the first nine issues of the second series. It also features some sketches and thoughts from Moore, a foreword by Diana Schultz, and an afterword by Dave Sim.

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