Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Anyone Read Strangers In Paradise?

Capitalist Piglet

14:48 / 23.04.03

I LOVE this series! I'm not a comic book fan (my husband is), but I got turned onto this one about a year ago. Anyone else read it?

FinderWolf

15:20 / 23.04.03

Honestly, I fell in love with it years ago - got the first paperback, then read it regularly for a while. But it really lost all appeal for me after a time -- there's only so many permutations of the 3 romantic leads you can do, and I began to find it a boring soap opera. (And I don't mind well-done soap opera type comics/stories)

It really ran out of steam for me. Every once in a while I check in on it, and I never see anything that makes me want to buy/read it again. It just seems like very one-note, rehashed stuff to me. But that's just my opinion. I'd be curious to see if you're still so excited about it two years from now.

sleazenation

15:43 / 23.04.03

I haven't read SiP for ages, I stopped when I got the distinct impression that I was reading the same two or three stories again and again.The story and characters appeard to be stuck in a rut and not going anywhere. So, which bits of this have you read? What recent stuff have I missed? Why do you enjoy this comic so much?

Catjerome

16:32 / 23.04.03

A friend of mine loaned me his SiP collections, and I thought that the first few were fantastic (especially *I Dream of You* - I ended up buying that one). The art was beautiful, and I loved how the characters interacted.

That being said, though, I think that Terry Moore hit on a couple of good things and then kept trying to repeat their success without ever progressing forward. It seemed like he was writing the same (a) "Katchoo's in trouble with mafia women" and (b) "Will Francine and Katchoo commit to each other or will obstacles get in their way" stories over and over again. Every time I thought the story would progress, it would just loop back around.

The art's still great, though. Extremely polished. It's neat to see how his style has become more refined over the years.

Here's a link to a funny SiP parody from the "You'll All Be Sorry" column:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=yabs&article=151

cusm

16:43 / 23.04.03

Oh yes, lovely stuff. I borrowed the lot from a friend a couple of years ago and devoured them in mere days. Its unashamedly soap opera, but Terry Moore's handling of emotional issues and relationships just struck me as so brilliantly done that I loved every bit of it.

Capitalist Piglet

16:44 / 23.04.03

I've read all of them up to this last issue. I will admit that some stories seem to get re-hashed a lot. I mean, come on Francine, just do her all ready!

Still, it is quite enjoyable. To catch you guys up, Kat and Casey are living together and having a relationship, though (of course) Kat is still in love with Francine. Francine is preggers, too. I think when she has the baby it will add a new dimension to the story.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

17:30 / 23.04.03

I wouldn't hold out much hope, nothing much has changed before. I got sick of it at the beginning of the year, and sent Terry Moore a lengthy email expressing my dissatisfaction with the title, along the lines of 'how many more years of foreplay do you expect to wring out of this?', as reading it since about issue 4 of the ongoing and having the TPBs of the limited series seemed quite enough. I suspect that Terry is worried that if he were to have Katchoo and Francine in bed in a way that wasn't a dream or an alternate future then the series would 'jump the crocodile' or whatever the phrase is, not realising that through inaction it's doing repeated backflips.

sleazenation

17:54 / 23.04.03

Do we know who the farther of francine'sm baby is yet?

I stopped reading around issue 12 of the ongoing...

Capitalist Piglet

18:40 / 23.04.03

It's that guy she married or was going to marry. I forget his name. My reading retention skills are not up to par since discovering alcohol.

cusm

14:37 / 24.04.03

I think I stopped reading it in just the right place, personally. Katchoo was rescued from the evil madam lady, Francine's wedding was stopped, and the three of them agreed to share one another and hobbled off into the sunset to have a threesome. Or something. After that, if the same old plot threads only repeat in new permutations, I can't see why I'd bother. And that was still like 10 TBK's worth or so at that.

sleazenation

14:51 / 24.04.03

hmm it seems to be the way with any drawn out romantic thread in an ongoing narrative - resolve it too early and maybe loose a chunk of fans who don't like what you've done (or have people constantly harking back to a golden age before that particular plotline was resolved) or you leave it unresolved and face the death of a thousand cuts as readers gradually realise its never going to be resolved and gradually lose interest.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

03:14 / 28.04.03

I remember liking this comic until the final issue of the first story where the mob person who had been chasing one of them for stolen money said "Yeah, I knew all along you didn't steal the money" and had a convoluted explanation that didn't work for me.

It was one of those time when you are shocked out of a story and just can't read it any more.

His art is getting better, and his characters are interesting, but his plotting drove me away from the comic.

moriarty

03:19 / 28.04.03

I found a copy of the third issue of the first mini-series after reading a sample in an issue of Cerebus back in the day. Enjoyed it, started reading the regular series, and continued buying it mainly because friends who weren't normally into comics were reading it. Finally clued in that it was creepy trash and that I was an enabler for my pals, so I dropped it. Haven't looked back.

Add Your Reply