IS THERE AN ECHO-ECHO-ECHO IN HERE?

April 11, 2008 on 2:23 pm | In Uncategorized

Let me start with an admission: I never really Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise.

I had a co-worker/roommate (hey, Jodie!) who LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Moore and his work on that book; she had the Katchoo in the bathtub statue and everything! Me, I came too late to the game and never really got into it.
I effed up.

I’ve checked out the first two issues of Moore’s new book, Echo and have thoroughly enjoyed not just the sci-fi/adventure plot (Julie Martin’s a young woman photographing landscapes in the desert when an experimental military battle suit is destroyed overhead, raining some new liquid alloy over her body; intrigue ensues!), but also Moore’s gorgeous black and white art, which is gallery worthy.

It’s so simple but so beautiful to look at; it’s packed with detail, the line work is extraordinary, the storytelling and pacing is dead-on, and the acting in his characters is second to none. And as an old-timer raised on black and white movies, I don’t miss the color for one second; in fact, the art’s so good, I can’t imagine it in color, nor would I want to see it that way (except for the covers).

In Julie Martin, Moore’s created an engaging lead who’s in the vein of a female Peter Parker—she’s in the midst of a painful divorce, she’s going broke and can’t pay her bills and the only things in her fridge are hot dogs and lettuce. Now throw in this intrigue she finds herself in, and her mundane life becomes anything but. And of course, Moore throws in a badass female assassin (Ivy), who’s also a loving mom.

With all that going for it, I just had to give a shout-out to Echo. Do yourself a favor and pick it up now. Only the first two issues are out, and they shouldn’t be hard to track down. Get in on the ground floor now; that’s how the cool kids do it.