Book-It '10! Book #50
The Fifty Books Challenge, year two! This was a library request.
Title: Strangers In Paradise (Book Two) by Terry Moore
Details: Copyright 2004, Abstract Studio
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Katchoo shares a tiny garage apartment with Franicne and passes the days by painting nude portraits of David. When a terrible fight drives David away, Katchoo follows him to California and into the deadly web of her former lover, Yakuza princess Darcy Parker. When Darchy makes Katchoo an offer she can't refuse, Katchoo transforms from prey to predator and begins to spin a web of her own.
Strangers In Paradise is the epic graphic novel series by Terry Moore. SiP has been awarded the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award for Best Comic Book, the Will Eisner Comics Industry Award for Best Serialized Story and the GLAAD Media Award for Best Comic Book."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Having stupidly requested the fifth book in the collected series thinking it was a single book, I scrambled to read the rest of this rather sprawling collection. With this book, I've now read everything, including Love & Lies, Book Three, Book Four, Book Six, The Complete Strangers In Paradise Volume One, and Strangers In Paradise (Book One).
How I Liked It: The series was still finding its footing and Moore was still tripping over many stumbling blocks of the sometimes stereotypical quality of his characters (and his attempts to give them three dimensions). A flashback to the central characters in high school is almost as cartoonish as the style of art (we know she's bad thanks to that leather jacket!). Still, an underlying sweetness and devotion to both the characters themselves and the story with its many threads carries through the rough spots and the highlights of Moore's style still shine brightly.
Notable: Moore apparently pays quiet homage to his comic book heroes-- his pre-Strangers in Paradise strips that he published in an "extras" section of the very first volume show a definite Bloom County influence. Moore salutes Berkeley Breathed throughout the series, including Francine visiting a gym for the first time in an Opus tee and Katchoo owning a Bill the Cat alarm clock.
In this volume, a special appearance that was probably only caught by hardcore nitpicky fans was made as an elderly member of Casey's aerobics class suffers what is revealed in a later panel (by way of a covered sheet on a stretcher) to be a fatal heart attack:
Apt since Neil Gaiman blurbs the first book in this series (for the record, actor/director Kevin Smith blurbs this one). It has to be said that towards the end of the series when it's revealed that a character is dying, said character is pursued by what is suggested to be the angel of death (who tells the character she actually has many names but he can call her "Ma Malai"). She has the overall demeanor and the reaction to her from other characters is the same as Death but she doesn't have the style or stance of Gaiman's arguably most famous character (although Death was rendered by numerous artists and was portrayed throughout history in the styles of the eras, she was still absolutely identifiable, and not simply because of her ever-present ankh).
Title: Strangers In Paradise (Book Two) by Terry Moore
Details: Copyright 2004, Abstract Studio
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Katchoo shares a tiny garage apartment with Franicne and passes the days by painting nude portraits of David. When a terrible fight drives David away, Katchoo follows him to California and into the deadly web of her former lover, Yakuza princess Darcy Parker. When Darchy makes Katchoo an offer she can't refuse, Katchoo transforms from prey to predator and begins to spin a web of her own.
Strangers In Paradise is the epic graphic novel series by Terry Moore. SiP has been awarded the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award for Best Comic Book, the Will Eisner Comics Industry Award for Best Serialized Story and the GLAAD Media Award for Best Comic Book."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Having stupidly requested the fifth book in the collected series thinking it was a single book, I scrambled to read the rest of this rather sprawling collection. With this book, I've now read everything, including Love & Lies, Book Three, Book Four, Book Six, The Complete Strangers In Paradise Volume One, and Strangers In Paradise (Book One).
How I Liked It: The series was still finding its footing and Moore was still tripping over many stumbling blocks of the sometimes stereotypical quality of his characters (and his attempts to give them three dimensions). A flashback to the central characters in high school is almost as cartoonish as the style of art (we know she's bad thanks to that leather jacket!). Still, an underlying sweetness and devotion to both the characters themselves and the story with its many threads carries through the rough spots and the highlights of Moore's style still shine brightly.
Notable: Moore apparently pays quiet homage to his comic book heroes-- his pre-Strangers in Paradise strips that he published in an "extras" section of the very first volume show a definite Bloom County influence. Moore salutes Berkeley Breathed throughout the series, including Francine visiting a gym for the first time in an Opus tee and Katchoo owning a Bill the Cat alarm clock.
In this volume, a special appearance that was probably only caught by hardcore nitpicky fans was made as an elderly member of Casey's aerobics class suffers what is revealed in a later panel (by way of a covered sheet on a stretcher) to be a fatal heart attack:
Apt since Neil Gaiman blurbs the first book in this series (for the record, actor/director Kevin Smith blurbs this one). It has to be said that towards the end of the series when it's revealed that a character is dying, said character is pursued by what is suggested to be the angel of death (who tells the character she actually has many names but he can call her "Ma Malai"). She has the overall demeanor and the reaction to her from other characters is the same as Death but she doesn't have the style or stance of Gaiman's arguably most famous character (although Death was rendered by numerous artists and was portrayed throughout history in the styles of the eras, she was still absolutely identifiable, and not simply because of her ever-present ankh).