Book-It '10! Book #43
The Fifty Books Challenge, year two! This was a library request.
Title: Strangers In Paradise Book 18: Love & Lies by Terry Moore
Details: Copyright 2006, Abstract Studio
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Things seem to be going very well for Katchoo and the gang. Katchoo's art business is finally taking off. Francine's marriage to Brad is loaded with perks such as frequent vacations in the Bahamas with his rock star brother. With a little help from David, Casey even comes up with a deviously successful plan for getting Francine and Katchoo to patch up their differences.
But all is not well in paradise. For some time now, David has kept a terrible secret from his friends. The truth finally comes out when Tambi confronts David and forces him to tell all to the women who love him most, Casey and Katchoo. Not surprisingly, it is Katchoo who comes up with a solution that is both shocking and heartwarming.
Strangers in Paradise is written and drawn by Terry Moore. SiP is critically acclaimed worldwide and is published in nine languages."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Having stupidly requested the fifth book in the collected series thinking it was a single book, I now am scrambling to read the rest of this rather sprawling collection. This book reads "eighteen" but would actually fall into the "six" after the "five" that I read (make any sense to comic fans?).
How I Liked It: I was nervous at how thin the book was, realizing that once again I'd gotten the story out of context. Actually, this is chronologically correct to the book I read last, at least as far as this series goes (Moore's fondness for prequels, sequels, and interconnected plots are at least somewhat easier for the reader that dove in somewhere in the middle, as I did). Obviously it's too hard to evaluate this book in comparison to those five times its size, but the steady thread of storytelling is still there. Perhaps due to it only being a partial volume, the concentration on the art is more obvious (including a back "cover gallery"). More than that, the comparisons to Gaiman's Sandman style of storytelling are more obvious. The twitch of a lip, the furrow of a brow, the flick of an eye: somehow this sort of subtlety is lost on many graphic novel artists (given the many artists Gaiman used throughout his series and the script he allowed publication of, he kept instruction pretty clear for what his characters should express and not express).
The slim volume is more compelling than the soap opera write up it gets on the back cover and predictably leaves audience with bated breath.
Notable: Moore in the previous work I'd read of his, the aforementioned Book Five, seems to stray away from using brand names. At least one electronics manufacturer gets a jilt (Sung Sam). Yet in Love & Lies, a character namedrops iTunes and later another, while ensconced at a Hilton (with helpful obvious signs everywhere) checks the screen of her Verizon phone (and her husband's Cingular). Given that these were easy write-outs and not terribly necessary to the plot (the Hilton could've been any hotel chain-- Verizon's logo would've shaped nicely into "Horizon Wireless") one has to wonder what Moore's motives were: certainly not advertising space. "Authenticity"?
Title: Strangers In Paradise Book 18: Love & Lies by Terry Moore
Details: Copyright 2006, Abstract Studio
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Things seem to be going very well for Katchoo and the gang. Katchoo's art business is finally taking off. Francine's marriage to Brad is loaded with perks such as frequent vacations in the Bahamas with his rock star brother. With a little help from David, Casey even comes up with a deviously successful plan for getting Francine and Katchoo to patch up their differences.
But all is not well in paradise. For some time now, David has kept a terrible secret from his friends. The truth finally comes out when Tambi confronts David and forces him to tell all to the women who love him most, Casey and Katchoo. Not surprisingly, it is Katchoo who comes up with a solution that is both shocking and heartwarming.
Strangers in Paradise is written and drawn by Terry Moore. SiP is critically acclaimed worldwide and is published in nine languages."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Having stupidly requested the fifth book in the collected series thinking it was a single book, I now am scrambling to read the rest of this rather sprawling collection. This book reads "eighteen" but would actually fall into the "six" after the "five" that I read (make any sense to comic fans?).
How I Liked It: I was nervous at how thin the book was, realizing that once again I'd gotten the story out of context. Actually, this is chronologically correct to the book I read last, at least as far as this series goes (Moore's fondness for prequels, sequels, and interconnected plots are at least somewhat easier for the reader that dove in somewhere in the middle, as I did). Obviously it's too hard to evaluate this book in comparison to those five times its size, but the steady thread of storytelling is still there. Perhaps due to it only being a partial volume, the concentration on the art is more obvious (including a back "cover gallery"). More than that, the comparisons to Gaiman's Sandman style of storytelling are more obvious. The twitch of a lip, the furrow of a brow, the flick of an eye: somehow this sort of subtlety is lost on many graphic novel artists (given the many artists Gaiman used throughout his series and the script he allowed publication of, he kept instruction pretty clear for what his characters should express and not express).
The slim volume is more compelling than the soap opera write up it gets on the back cover and predictably leaves audience with bated breath.
Notable: Moore in the previous work I'd read of his, the aforementioned Book Five, seems to stray away from using brand names. At least one electronics manufacturer gets a jilt (Sung Sam). Yet in Love & Lies, a character namedrops iTunes and later another, while ensconced at a Hilton (with helpful obvious signs everywhere) checks the screen of her Verizon phone (and her husband's Cingular). Given that these were easy write-outs and not terribly necessary to the plot (the Hilton could've been any hotel chain-- Verizon's logo would've shaped nicely into "Horizon Wireless") one has to wonder what Moore's motives were: certainly not advertising space. "Authenticity"?