Sell Me On Strangers In Paradise

[taintedlunch]

I was listening to the latest iFanboy podcast ( www.ifanboy.com, also available on iTunes), and they were going on and on about Strangers In Paradise. I'm just about intrigued enough to try it out. Someone out there give me a nudge.

[kingdom2000]

Buy SiP Pocket Volume 1, retail $17, probably order online for cheaper. If don't like it after reading that, never going to.

[Ian Boothby]

I really disliked the first couple of issues of this and never picked it up after that. Nicely drawn though.

[Selina Quinzel]

Sell you on it? Well it's been around for more than 10 years, and is one of the most critically and reader acclaimed series in comics- I'm actually surprised it's only now come to your attention. kingdom2000 is right- you'll never really know if you dig it until you read it. Some of the most lauded series I personally just do not like, and Strangers in Paradise is pretty unique. It's mainly a realistic but funny look at relationships, including hetero/bi/homosexual, friendships... it's really a character-driven series more than plot-driven, which I think is really cool.

It's so long running that there are TONS of storylines you can jump into (a definite plus when compared to traditional superhero series) There's actually a small volume one collection with a $7 list price, that'd be a good place to jump in.

[Gingold]

Never really got into it myself or understood its appeal. I tried it a couple of times based on enthusiastic recommendations, but I always found it creepy- but not in cool way. But yeah, the art is pretty.

[stealthwise]

I thought that the first tpb was clunky, but showed promise. Very cartoony.

Then the book degenerated into a horribly tedious love triangle mixed with secret agent genre book. I dislike pretty much everything about the second and third tpb that I borrowed from a friend, and feel obligated to warn anyone who hasn't read the book yet.

RUN!

[Azrael52]

SiP...cool story. I was in a comic book class (Ringslinger was in it, too) at Henderson University. It was really cool, but my first couple of semesters I had this thing about oversleeping late into the afternoon. It cost me my scholarships (ok, so that's not the cool part of the story). Our teacher, Dr. Duncan was so cool, and he kept having guest speakers, I remember Waid on the phone, and it seems like there was one other....I missed everyone...I felt like crap, then, they had Terry Moore come and speak.....I missed it...I felt like crap. I had to drop all of my classes b/c I was going to fail a couple and lose my scholarships. So, I went and talked to Dr. Duncan about dropping. I felt like a total turd for having to drop a freakin' Comic class. So Dr. Duncan hears my sob story and before I go, he says, "Terry Moore handed these out. Here's your copy." It was a hardback (the only hardback comic I own) copy of some story arc of SiP. I read it, and it was really good. Great character interaction. The coolest part is that it was a $30 book for free, my only hardback comic, and my only autographed comic. I just hate I had to be such a loser back then (well, not a loser, but like Sleepy Dwarf-ish).

Since then, I've got another SiP book, but I've not picked them up regularly, or anything ever. I liked what I read. Try it.

[Ponda]

Coincidentally, I am just starting to get into SiP!

I had always heard about it, and much like any other widely liked book that I manage to find in a 25-cent bin, I gave it a purchase.
I really liked the issues I bought.

I was recently in a comic book store, and I checked out the offerings.
I really have to recommend the "Pocket Book" versions over the full-size trades. Volume 1 of the full-size version only contains 3 issues and some bonus material. Volume 1 of the Pocket Book contains 16 issues.

I discovered this difference because the shopkeeper was nice enough to let me take them out of their bags. When he asked me about my decision, I was like, "I'm definitely getting one of the Pocket editions, but now I have to decide if I should start at the beginning or just choose a random volume."
This confused the poor guy greatly.
He adamantly suggested starting at the beginning and seemed very confused about why I'd want to do otherwise.
I tried to explain to him how some random recent issues from a 25-cent bin were what got me interested, but that didn't seem to alleviate his confusion.

So I caved and bought the first volume.
I actually liked it a lot and burned through it really quickly.

I want to buy more, but I think next time I'll leap to Volume 5 or something.

[The Beast Of Yucca Flats]

I read I Dream Of You a long time ago, and thought it was pretty good. I'd probably say it's worth a look for that arc alone. Sadly, I haven't really read any more aside from that.

[Cam63]

I've got to be in the right mood to read SiP.

[thehod]

I read I Dream Of You a long time ago, and thought it was pretty good. I'd probably say it's worth a look for that arc alone. Sadly, I haven't really read any more aside from that.

Don't really need to as Terry Moore, bless him, has more or less regurgitated this story ad nauseam for the last ten years.

Still, I quite enjoy reading it from time to time.

[Ponda]

You just totally blew my mind, thehod.

I had assumed Terry Moore was female.
(a quick Googling verifies his male gender, though)

This may sound crazy, and I'm not sure why it's true, but that will change my entire reading of it.

[Gilda Dent]

Don't really need to as Terry Moore, bless him, has more or less regurgitated this story ad nauseam for the last ten years.

Still, I quite enjoy reading it from time to time.

Nah, he's been telling one long story for ten years, that of the relationship between Francine, Katchoo, and David, and the rest is just subplot used to explore that.

Why it rocks: In between the satire and labyrinthine evil conspiracy subplot, he nails the emotional stuff over and over and over, and Moore has a good ear for dialog, both the ridiculous stylized stuff and the effortless back and forth between old friends.

Gilda

[thehod]

Nah, he's been telling one long story for ten years, that of the relationship between Francine, Katchoo, and David, and the rest is just subplot used to explore that.

Oh I get that, its just that he's used the same subplot for the last ten years. :)

Why it rocks: In between the satire and labyrinthine evil conspiracy subplot, he nails the emotional stuff over and over and over, and Moore has a good ear for dialog, both the ridiculous stylized stuff and the effortless back and forth between old friends.

Gilda

Aint gonna argue one jot there.

[bert]

Brilliant book.

been a fan since the first Mini (from Antartic Press)

to the point that I actually own several "color guides", orignal art, and even the Press Proof of the "Xena" issue (bought it from Terry at Dragon*con).
I even have the Pro DVD he did, where it shows his studio, and how he works.

Hell, at San Diego, I bought another poster from him, and I *think* I'm one of the few people that has the original Francine, Katchoo, and David 'head' pins.

It's a great book, and Terry puts so much thought into each issue that it can blow you out of the water.

Hell.. . SiP is one of the few books that actually has made me break down in tears (the absolutely STUNNING issue with the Plane Crash).

the *best* reason not to skip around volumes?. . he's telling one big story, and little things from the past, mean much more when you start to put the story together.

all that said.. he hit a real slump about 4 years ago. He tried to "restart" the book, from a different character's perception -- basically trying to ret-con everything we'd been told as a story being written by Francine's daughter (and that's why some things didn't jibe).

<the important thing about SiP is that it's told in PAST TENSE (like Babylon 5 was). . we know how it ends. .the story we're following is flashbacks to explain the history>

anyways. . so Terry tried to get around all this by having what we had read so far just be one characters "version" of it.

the fans pretty much revolted (LOL), and it's never been mentioned since. In fact, the really well done SiP Treasury that shipped last year -- and gives new readers a chance to catch up on all the characters, and developments -- doesn't even MENTION this several issue arc.

It took Terry a while to recover from this stumble, and yeah. . there was a years long period when the book just stunk.

In the past couple of years tho, it's back on it's "A" game.

check it out.

(by the way, I've only met the man at Cons. . but I call him Terry because that's what he prefers to be called, based on the great letters column in the back of every issue).