Strangers in Paradise Pocket Book 4 Terry Moore

This is the last of the pocket books for now so I thought it would be a good time to take a look at Strangers in Paradise as a whole. I'm only up to book 3 right now, but I have read the entire series and I have to say it's better in small doses. The pocket books are nice because now I can get rid of all the individual issues, but it reads better as a monthly.

In big chunks the inherit silliness and more annoying, over the top, soap opera aspects of the story start to become overwhelming. I'm still waiting for Darcy to pop up one day, even though she has a bullet in her head and has been dead for several years. And don't get me started on the continuity of this series. That's one aspect that is well served by reading the story in one extended run, but it's still cumbersome. Who knows if it's ever going to be untangled.

The art is beautiful. Moore's gotten better and better over the years. If you ever have a chance to see his originals from recent years take a good look. The quality of his finished ink work is some of the best in the business. That's not something that will be apparent in the 5x7 format of the pocket books.

For all of the silliness and confusing continuity, I still enjoy reading the series for the character work that Moore is doing. Character has always been the strongest part of of his writing and it's enough to keep me coming back. Buy Volume One and give it a read. There is good satisfying chunk of story here and it's not a bad deal at $17.95.