Strangers In Paradise

Strangers In Paradise (SIP to fans) is a wonderful comic book by Terry Moore. It is about Francine and Katchoo, two very different young women. It follows them through many trials and tribulations. It is in some ways like a soap opera, but its much more entertaining and well thought out. Many comic books seem to be focused towards kids, this is not one of them.

The song is Stranger in Paradise, from Kismet (thanks SonicQ. I vaguely recall that the melody was yoinked from some classical music piece.

The comic is quite good, with a level of intelligence, drama and humor rarely found in American comics. The quality of the art varies from panel to panel, but when it's good it's very good. It passes into melodrama regularly, but again, it's pretty good melodrama. "SiP" is one of the only non-underground comic books to feature female characters with realistic bodies.

Here are a few tidbits about SiP:

The art of Strangers in Paradise, while cartoony, is more realisitic in its portrayal of body-types than most comics out there. Its women don't have triple E cups and its men don't have forty inch biceps.

One of the most overlooked aspects of Terry Moore's art is its often cinematic quality. There are a number of sequences that read as smoothly as watching a moving picture.

As for the stories, they don't fit any one genre, or, at least they jump among romance, soap opera, government conspiracy, and slice-of-life.