The Complete Strangers In Paradise, Volume 3, Part 8

Strangers in Paradise Hardback Collection

by Terry Moore

This is the final trade book in the Complete Strangers in Paradise hard cover series chronicling the lives of Francine and Katchoo. When her famous brother-in-law falls prey to a crazed fan's bullet, Francine is forced to confront her own doubts and fears about the life she has chosen. In a bold move, she leaves her cheating husband and tries to reconnect with the only person she ever truly loved, Katchoo. But things have changed since Francine left, Katchoo has changed, and it soon becomes apparent that if Francine wants her friend back she's going to have to fight for her.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Comix

288 pages, Hardcover

First published August 29, 2007

About the author

Following the examples of independent comic creators such as Dave Sim and Jeff Smith, he decided to publish Strangers in Paradise himself through his own Houston-based "Abstract Studios" imprint, and has frequently mentioned a desire to do a syndicated cartoon strip in the authors notes at the back of the Strangers in Paradise collection books. He has also mentioned his greatest career influence is Peanuts' Charles Schulz.[1] Some of Moore's strip work can additionally be found in his Paradise, Too! publications.

His work has won him recognition in the comics industry, including receiving the Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story in 1996 for Strangers in Paradise #1-8, which was collected in the trade paperback "I Dream of You".

It was announced on June 15th, 2007 that Moore would be taking over for Sean McKeever as writer of Marvel Comics's Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane series starting with a new issue #1. On July 27th, Marvel announced that Moore would also take over for Joss Whedon as writer of Marvel's Runaways.[2]

On November 19th, 2007 Terry Moore announced in his blog that his new self-published series would be named Echo and its first issue would appear on March 5th, 2008.[3]

Reviews

[Jacobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series to death. It's one of my favorites, and was the series that pulled me back into comics in the early 2000s. However, while I enjoyed this series all the way through, I really found the main characters got to be a little insufferable towards the end. I began to dislike Katchoo AND Francine. I stopped being invested in whether they got together or not, found happiness or not, or anything because the will they/won't they aspect got very circular in execution.

Not only that, though, both characters were terrible to people around them (in spots) that didn't really deserve it. Really, after issue 50, this book found me rooting for David, Casey, and Katchoo's art career -- especially Casey who really becomes the heart of the book.

Also, I seemed like some characters where changed out of convenience for the plot, and not by what it seemed like they would do naturally (Freddy's last stand and Francine's husband jump to mind). Honestly, while I enjoy this whole series, I will probably stop around issue 43 whenever I reread SiP in the future.

ETA: Thinking about it more, I probably will read the whole series. While there are things I didn't care for in the last third of the series, that section is still important for the overall plot of SiP. I guess I just need to reconcile that the last third of the book is a very different beast than how this series opened. Maybe it would be easier to swallow if I hadn't read the whole series in the course of a week. None of the main characters act out of character, so really I just didn't like the choices some of them were making. That might be frustrating, but that doesn't make things bad (not that I'm saying they ever were).

[Bookworm Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series. Faults and all

[Allan Nail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this series. Started off a bit poorly, and I imagine this was in part because it was Moore's first. But the characters were gripping, if a bit cartoony, and they mellowed out and became surprisingly real as the series went on. (Obviously, this review is about the entire series, not this volume. I read them as single issues, so it was a bit weird getting them into Goodreads.)

One thing that really worked for me was the way Moore kind of did a reset in the middle of the run. It was obvious that, as he began to play with timelines and narrative structure, he found he had painted himself into a corner. The reset was a bit meta, but so is the series as a whole, and if you can get past the gratuitousness of some portions (the Griffin Silver elements were almost entirely stupid and groan worthy, especially all the fake lyrics), the fact that he decided he wasn't done with the gang is forgivable and even interesting from a creative standpoint. I'm fascinated by revision, and it was fun to watch it manifest here in this way. It was tongue-in-cheek, with obvious nods to complaints he must have heard from fans (repetitive? yup), and handled well.

I've got one of those achy feelings because of how realistic the characters are. This seems to be Moore's strength. I was initial attracted to his books by his artistic style, but he really excels (even in this nascent stage) at making relationships develop realistically, over time, as only comics can. I find myself already missing Katchoo and Francine (David, not so much). I imagine they will live in the back of my brain for a bit longer.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent finish to a beautiful 13 year journey. Happy for Katchoo, Francine and Casey. Sad for David.