Strangers in Paradise Vol 4 TP Love Me Tender 1st print Terry Moore Abstract

Description

Strangers in Paradise Volume 4 Love Me Tender TPB
Published Jan 1998 by Abstract

1st printing. “Love Me Tender!”
Collects Strangers in Paradise (1996 Image/Homage) #1-5.

Story and art by Terry Moore.

This collection beginns with the five-page color dream sequence by Jim Lee!

The rest of the story is offered in black and white for the first time, as Francine, Katchoo, and David struggle with their relationships in the aftermath of I Dream of You. However, in their self-absorbing conflicts, they fail to notice an ominous presence that rises and surrounds their lives like a deadly storm. A powerful look at the human heart caught off-guard.

Softcover, 120 pages, B&W (partially color). Mature Readers

Cover price $12.95.

Strangers in Paradise is the tale about three friends who seem stuck in their love for each other. Each one trying to figure out what to do with their feelings, they get confused, surprised, disappointed and cheered up during events.

Where most titles start off strong and then fall into the big grey area, this title keeps me interested and entertained. This here is vol. 4 of the collections but it can also be used as a jump-on TPB for newcomers to the title. It collects the first 5 issues of volume III.

First off we make a jump in time, many years past the events in the previous collection (“It’s a Good Life”). Francine is a middle-aged woman now, with a little daughter, and has been married for ten years. It’s been equally as long since she last saw her best friend Katchoo. When she’s sitting in a restaurant oneday an old acquaintance walks by and mentions she just saw Katchoo sitting in the lobby. Right there memory-train leaves the station for Francine. She starts thinking about how things were when she and Katchoo used to live together.

The rest of the paperback is about those memories (which are the real continuations from the previous volumes). We see Francine trying to get a job and trying to gain some self-esteem. We see how our main three characters (David, Katchoo and Francine) keep on struggling with their feelings in their little love-triangle where nobody really oversees it all. Katchoo realizing how she really knows little about David, and off course there’s still the humor in the dialogues (or else it wouldn’t be Strangers in Paradise).

The colors in the first few issues seem a little strange at first. That’s because this trade is in black-and-white and the original issues collected here were in color. Imagine making a black-and-white copy of a colored page and you know what I mean. Luckily that’s only in the first few issues, the rest is back in original black-and-white (as seen before). The art is as good as it ever was (fluent, realistic and clear) and the story never stopped being interesting. Although I would advise to get “I Dream of You” and “It’s a Good Life” (they together collect vol.2 in its entirety) first, it isn’t really neccesary. You should get them to get to know the characters and because they’re good, but this is a good jump-on point as well for new readers. There’s minor hinting to what happened previously in this volume, but it’s nowhere essential.

This title is a good diversion from most other comics and can best be described as a action-humor-dramatized-soap-opera centered around three characters. And it works…

People who like this title should also keep an eye out for “Box Office Poison” and “The Waiting Place” and “Hepcats”.

Terry Moore’s Graphic Novel ‘Strangers In Paradise’ On Way To Big Screen

Terry Moore and filmmaker Angela Robinson are partnering to adapt Moore’s long-running graphic novel Strangers In Paradise for film. The comic follows Katchoo, a beautiful young woman living a quiet life with everything going for her. She’s smart, independent and very much in love with her best friend, Francine. Then Katchoo meets David, a gentle but persistent young man determined to win Katchoo’s heart. The resulting love triangle is a touching comedy of romantic errors until Katchoo’s former employer comes looking for her and $850,000 in missing mob money. As her idyllic life begins to fall apart, Katchoo discovers no one can be trusted and that the past she thought she left behind now threatens to destroy her and everything she loves, including Francine.

“Angela and I have known each other for years and I greatly admire her creative vision.” said Moore. “From day one our common goal was to bring Strangers In Paradise to the screen. It’s a complex story that took years to write and Angela gets it on every level. I can’t wait to get started.”

Robinson’s Professor Marston And The Wonder Woman, an origin story of the man who created Wonder Woman and the women who inspired the character, stars Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote and is premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. The film, which Robinson wrote and directed, will be released by Annapurna on October 13.

“I’ve been wanting to adapt Strangers In Paradise for over a decade, since the first time I read it and couldn’t put it down. Terry Moore writes real female characters with such breathtaking sensitivity,” said Robinson. “With Strangers In Paradise he pulls off the nearly impossible — a sexy, stylish crime story with tons of heart. I look forward to our collaboration.”

Moore is the Eisner Award-winning creator of the Strangers in Paradise series. His horror series Rachel Rising was nominated for a 2012 Bram Stoker Award in the Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel category by the Horror Writers Association.

Collects Strangers in Paradise (1996 Image/Homage) #1-5. Near mint, 1st print.