3 out of 5

Well, I think I’ve cured myself of my SiP curiosity.

Terry Moore’s works – once I became aware of him – have existed on the “I’ll get to it” list of books; I’d see new issues of series pop up on the racks and flip through – appreciating his loose realism, the generally female-led storylines – but not seeing anything dialogue or scene-wise that necessarily stood out as something I needed to pick up and read right away.  So back on the rack, and on that list.  Similarly, as I’d read snippets about Moore’s writing, pieces lined up – the genre mish-mash of noir and sci-fi with bursts of outlandishness and a deep-seated character focus – but again, nothing that really stood out.

The first volume of Stranger in Paradise confirmed that feeling, but it was just the start of things, and it leaned more on comedy than I think I’d expected, which was a plus; thus, I was encouraged to continue.

Volume two is all of the above, though definitely leaning more into drama, with an emerging pulp trend told via flashes of violence and straight-up text pieces, as Moore has us exploring the I guess mysterious past of Katchoo, one corner of the friend/romance triangle of friends the series’ features.  I say ‘I guess’ because I couldn’t help but feel like nothing much comes of nine issues, even though, surely, a lot actually does.  Meaning: yes, details are dropped with hints of more to come, but they’re rolled out in a rather staid, predictable fashion, and once you get one sniff of where things are going, the rest isn’t all that surprising.  And as Moore shifts more into the emotional component of things – conflicting feelings, lost innocence – I started to feel like this work, which is often noted for its strong and realistic female leads, is just as much of a fantasy about a certain type of female as anything else.  Katchoo is the elusive, tough one; Francine is the demure doter; and Terry Moore has rather tired opinions on gender and love and media.  It’s all very normal – at least, I suppose, looking back on it now, but I don’t really suspect his approach has changed at its core – and it’s all rather rom-com fare.  SiP is very well arted, and I do agree that this set up a writing style of character-first that would take maybe another 15 years or so to start fully picking up steam with the modern age of Image (e.g. Saga…), but I read things like this and sense potential but also can’t help but see it as just a flip-side of a particular wishy-washy coin