When writer-artist Terry Moore ended his long-running creator-owned title Strangers in Paradise, it was the end of one chapter of his career and the start of another. Readers and retailers expressed their sadness that they would no longer get regular visits with Katchoo, Francine and David, but also their admiration that Moore had finished such an epic story and given the characters such fitting ends. Back when he started SiP, though, the incoming writer of Marvel’s Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane didn’t imagine he’d get very far at the old House of Ideas.

This interview with Moore was his first published interview. It was conducted by our own J.C. Vaughn (also his first published) with Rosina Ally (likewise). It ran in the pages of the September 1994 issue of Up’n Coming, which was the monthly catalog from Styx International. It was edited at the time by Jeff Novotny, who we trust would forgive us for turning the American English prose back into American English, although it was published in Canadian English.

Terry Moore Discusses Strangers in Paradise
Strangers in Paradise first stormed into comic book stores last November when the original three-issue mini-series made its debut —and it certainly didn’t take long for fans and critics to take notice! Creator Terry Moore was widely hailed as one of the best and brightest new talents in the industry, and the series received praise due to the strong storyline, the presence of many interesting characters, and the confident, attractive, and distinctive artwork. Although that original mini-series was published by Antarctic Press, Terry has decided to branch out on his own. He’s now presenting an all-new ongoing Strangers in Paradise series on his very own publishing label, Abstract Studio, with issue 1 due to ship in September. To find out more about this popular and intriguing title, freelance writers J.C. Vaughn and Rosina S. Ally helped out UP’n COMING! by interviewing Terry Moore about the book and about his current and future plans.

Scoop: Strangers in Paradise #1 was your first comic book. What kind of training did you have?
Terry Moore (TM): The only formal training I had was from a retired Disney animator, Dick Ruhl, who set up a small school for hopeful cartoonists. I did that for four months and he helped line me up to go to work at Disney, but I decided against it. After that it was just the occasional life-drawing classes.

Mostly I just sat at home and worked on my own comics, just for myself. I couldn’t decide what to do. Comic books were my last choice because the artists were so good I didn’t think I could work in their field, but after awhile, I just thought I had to try.

Scoop: Did you read comics while you were growing up? If so, what titles?
TM: I started reading Superman and Batman as soon as I was old enough to read. I was the only six year old on my block with the word invulnerable in his vocabulary! I was hooked on Spider-Man for years. The X-Men I never got into because there were just too many of them to keep up with. I liked the loners. Maybe that’s why I’m self-publishing.

Scoop: What are your other influences?
TM:  My strongest influences are the magazine illustrators from the early part of the century up through the ’50s. Flagg, Christy, Coles Phillips, all of them. I hold them in higher esteem than the fine artists. Everybody else I like is actually a progression from that group, Alex Raymond, Frazetta, Jeff Jones, Dave Stevens. You know who I think is fantastic now, just blows me away — Adam Hughes.

Scoop: What’s your background otherwise?
TM: I started out playing in bands in junior high — playing in clubs I was too young to even be in. I worked in several bands after high school for a few years, and worked on movie crews in between bands — just drawing at night. Finally, I ended up getting a job as a video tape editor, cutting together commercials, TV shows, and music videos. I’ve been doing that for a while now, supporting this nasty ink habit I’ve got.

Scoop: How did Strangers in Paradise end up at Antarctic Press for the first mini-series?
TM:  I got rejection notices from everybody else, then they called me in response to a blind submission I’d sent through the mail. I was about to self publish when they offered to pick it up. I think it was pretty brave of them to pick it up because they certainly weren’t doing that kind of stuff then. A weird marriage, but it worked. It helped to start with them because they set me up with the distributors and all.

Scoop: Before your self-published series begins, you’ve got a story in Negative Burn #13, the anthology series. How did that come about?
TM: Yeah, the anniversary issue. Joe Pruett just contacted me and offered me a slot in his book. I knew it was a good break for me because people are after him constantly for a slot, so I was honored to be asked.

Scoop: Then comes your new Strangers in Paradise series. Will it be another mini-series, or will it be ongoing?
TM: I’ll start it off as a regular ongoing story, but I’ll tell it in a non­linear fashion, so a few issues may take place now, then a few issues may be from 10 years ago. You know, when you think about a subject in your life, your mind usually covers a lot of relevant ground, time-wise. I’ll try to do the same in the story. The series will start nine months after the mini-series story. So we find the girls in totally different circumstances.

Scoop: Before getting into specifics about Strangers in Paradise, you’ve got some other material coming up, too. Anything you’d like to discuss?
TM:  Well, there’s the Sandman pin-up Teri S. Wood and I did together for the Sandman Gallery coming out this summer. I’m also illustrating an Alan Moore song; it’s scheduled for Negative Burn #15, I think. Dave Sim very kindly offered a Cerebus preview scheduled for September, so I’m really looking forward to that! There’s a 64 page self-publisher comic coming out later this year that I’m in, titled GASP. It’ll have sixteen different artists in it, like Michael Cohen (Strange Attractors), Rick Veitch (Rare Bit Friends) Teri S. Wood (Wandering Star). Martin Wagner (Hepcats), and lots of other popular folks. Then there’s the series, of course, which I’m working on during all of that.

Scoop: Strangers in Paradise has been pretty successful for a small press publication —both in critical and sales terms, right? Has this surprised you?
TM:  I think what success Strangers in Paradise has found has really just come from inside the industry, because people in the business will look at every new thing that comes along and they’ll see your book and know about it long before the fans will try it. It’s very hard for one little book to get any attention these days, but I was really surprised by the positive response I did get. I happened upon a glowing review in Comic Shop News one day and started to read it in the store and had to sit down, I was so stunned by what they said. Then when I got a good review in The Comics Journal, I thought, “That’s it. I’m dreaming and this is all just a really weird episode of The Prisoner!”

Scoop: Where did the idea come from?
TM:  For Strangers in Paradise? I had been doing variations on Francine and Katchoo for years. Then I started thinking of one long story. I had this notion of an average, ordinary woman, Francine, having a nervous breakdown in the park when her boyfriend tries to break up with her, and she rips all her clothes off. It’s an unthinkable thing to do from a woman’s point of view and I started thinking, what extraordinary chain of events would drive a woman to do such a thing? The story came from there. What happened before the park? What happened to her after that? That was the premise for the mini-series. A simple plot muddled up by complex relationships.

Scoop: You had offers from other publishers including Dark Horse, yet you decided to self-publish after talking to Jeff Smith. Why? What was involved in your decision?
TM:  Jeff said over and over again, “I can’t tell you what to do: it’s your decision. But I just couldn’t make myself hand my comic over to a company and beg them to take 90% of the money.” The direct-market is so straightforward and simple, business-wise, it really encourages the individual to try it. Of course, there’s nothing like a big company push to make a new title known, but nobody buys the second issue of a piece of crap, so if you think your book’s any good it’s awfully tempting to just self-publish and wait for the slower, stronger swell of word-to-mouth. The hard part is being a business man and getting the creative work done as well. It would be nice to just relax and create…but it’s not worth the split you pay for somebody else to do your business for you, not when it’s just a relatively small print run of one comic.

Scoop: You’ve said elsewhere that your comics reading is eclectic and goes across the board. What about your interest in producing comic stories in other genres – science fiction, mystery, super-hero, whatever? Anything there?
TM: I have a lot of other stories I want to do and for the life of me I can’t figure out why I did Strangers in Paradise first. That’s why I won’t commit to how long I’ll do Strangers in Paradise. It’s not my favorite story I’ve written. One story in particular I’m dying to do is an epic that combines fantasy and science-fiction and romance. It’s about a man who claims to have been mid-wife to the world we’re living in.

I have weird stories too, like a Spider-Man story that’s never been done, really traumatic and frightening in a real world way, not a fantasy world style. I almost pursued it and sent it in before I came to my senses. [Terry jokes] DeFalco: “What’s this? An unsolicited plot for our number one title from some unknown hack? Call a board meeting, we’ll all read it together and give it serious thought! This could be just the story we’ve been waiting for!!”

As Katchoo would say, “…Nay, I don’t think so.”

Scoop: Beginning in #1, it’s clear that Freddie is a pretty reprehensible guy. What makes a girl like Francine go for a guy like that?
TM: Oh, I see it all the time! Why do good people date and marry jerks? The story of Freddie and Francine actually addresses that question to some degree. I think it happens when a good person loses their self-esteem and begins to compromise too much. That was Francine’s case.

Scoop: Katchoo is a very interesting character. She’s got a lot of different sides, but she’s not exactly what one would call well-adjusted, is she?
TM: Ah, well, it depends on what you’re forced to adjust to. Her background has really influenced her. We see a roommate with typical boyfriend problems; Katchoo sees something else. Such is life, huh?

Scoop: She seeks revenge on Freddie before Francine can even tell her what happened; she lectures David before he can really even say anything; she spits fire about killing Freddie and then sees her life falling apart with the prospect of being in jail. She’s dynamic and opinionated, but she’s quick to jump to conclusions. She must be a wonderful character to write, eh?
TM: Oh yeah! It’s great because in real life I’ve found things turn out better if I’m polite and considerate and tolerant… all those things that put you in an early grave from stress. But, inside we’re all just kicking and screaming and spitting nails out at all these things in our lives that frustrate us and anger us and even threaten us. Katchoo’s inside out. She reacts on the outside and harbors her heart deep, deep within, like a porcupine so I get to mouth off through her and kick butt and people will still talk to me the next day! What a deal!

There’s a male fantasy about women like that that the love of such a woman is the most prized of all because they would, assumingly, be so sweet to the one they love and so nasty to the rest of the world, it would really make you feel special. Rather the opposite of Francine. who one would suspect would give any man a chance if she thought he loved her. Men suspect they’re not all that special in that kind of relationship, so they tend to be less careful with it. And to prove my point, all of the fan response has been about Katchoo; poor ol’ Francine is mostly overlooked, even by the fans.

Scoop: Sort of a difficult type of person to know in real life, but very interesting. Once you get going on a story, does she sort of write herself? She seems like a very lively character.
TM: Katchoo is easy for me to write. Francine requires more thought because I have to think harder about her problems and responses from the woman’s point of view. But Katchoo is dealing with more than just hardcore women’s issues, she’s taking on problems men face as well. I could just as easily have made Katchoo a male roommate. The relationships, the words and actions could all be the same. Of course, that would put a little different slant on David’s interest, wouldn’t it? But I like the cross-casting. You know, men in women’s roles and vice-versa. If Katchoo was a man seeking physical revenge on a man it would not be as interesting, we’d almost expect it. Nobody expects Katchoo to do some of the things she did. I love that.

Scoop: Your art is described as "cartoony but good" by a lot of people. So many "serious" comic books are dark and dreary (sometimes fantastic, other times just dark and dreary), do you think your style is part of what surprised your readers?
TM: I’m definitely a cartoonist first, not an illustrator. In fact, I’ve been plagued with the notion I should have made the art even more stylized. Maybe I will as things progress. I have heard some comments about the simple art contrasted to the complex story. but I thought that was the original premise for comic books anyway. Hopefully, I’ll develop a stronger style as I grow up in the medium.

Scoop: Your style really suits the characters well. Despite the "cartoony" tag, your characters have a superb range of facial expression. In an industry where many of the characters don’t have discernible eyes, there’s a lot of visual interaction in Strangers in Paradise that relies chiefly on facial expressions. Any comments?
TM: That’s from my animation training. In film, the eyes are everything, whether it’s Lillian Gish or Yosemite Sam. I’ll never forget this one moment in a B-movie I saw late one night on TV, there was a really elegant, attractive woman standing alongside several men in a tense moment in the story, and one of the men betrayed her. The camera pushed in towards the woman as she looked at the guy, silently, and everything you could possibly feel about the betrayal and all its consequences was on her face. She never said a word, but for just a moment you could really see everything inside her, and it just broke my heart. I’ll never forget it.

For me, the story is in my head like a movie, and the comic book is just a storyboard of the key frames. For Strangers in Paradise I tried to get really good actors!

Scoop: Do you think Francine (at least as we’ve seen her so far) is a weak or a strong woman (or just average)?
TM: I think Francine is a strong woman. There are two kinds of strong, though. There are the types who are brazen and bold, and risk constantly offending to have their way; and then there are the silent types who go through life like sleeping lions, enduring most everything with little complaint because they feel they can handle it if it’ll make things go smoother. We have both kinds of women in the story. Francine lets herself get beaten up emotionally because she’s so down about her life anyway, but when her best friends becomes endangered, Francine immediately took charge in her own, very effective way. Like Dorothy, she had the power to do that all along. It’s all in your head and what you’re willing to do to the people around you.

Scoop: When Katchoo is teasing Francine about Freddie’s begging (issue #1, pages 9-10), does she know how much is teasing and how much is real?
TM: Words betray the heart. Francine wasn’t ready to deal with it.

Scoop: Is Freddie really Randy Quaid? (issue #1, page 18, panel 4)
TM: Ha! I hadn’t noticed that. He could be, yeah. He’d be great. I was actually thinking more along the type of Larry, the curly headed, pompous guy from the TV show, Perfect Strangers, about the two cousins? He’s a great comedian. He’d be funny in the role. Quaid can be very funny too, though, it’d be a little bit of a different take on the Freddie type.

Scoop: Freddie, Katchoo, and to a lesser extent Francine seem to be somewhat cartoony in characterization as well as illustration — are they exaggerated to the point of stereotypes? What about David? He seems sort of tame compared to the rest of them. What’s his problem?
TM: They don’t just represent types of people, to me they represent movements. If somebody, or some aspect of society, goes in this direction or that, I automatically think, "okay, where will that end up?" I look at the feminist movement and all the fighting and bad feelings it generates among men, and I think, where could that lead? I think it leads to Strangers in Paradise. Feminists want to be empowered like Katchoo, and they think submissive women end up like Francine. Of course, Katchoo is a Schwarzenegger version of feminism, but that’s the point of the story. I think the reality of the man in this new era of feminism is typified in Freddie and David. One guy is a ridiculous iconoclast, like the general in "Dr. Strangelove"; the other wanders right into the enemy camp asking questions and sharing rations.

David is an extreme person — we just haven’t seen it yet. But he’s not a nut or anything. He’s an extremely gifted young man, and most gifted people pay a price for that in one way or another. It’s nature’s way of evening the odds among us. The poem in the journal at the start of Strangers in Paradise#3 is David’s. I think that it gives you some idea of what he’s quietly dealing with. Katchoo knows there’s something special about him and that’s why she lets him get closer, but the events in the mini-series just didn’t reveal much about him because the focus was somewhere else. We’ll uncover David’s story in the series, I promise.

Scoop: Who would you want to star in a Strangers in Paradise movie? Would you even want to see it as a movie?
TM: When I wrote the story I conceived of it as a screenplay. I’ve always intended to try and option it off as a movie property. I’m working on that now. Jennifer Connelly would make a good Francine, I think. She appears too glamorous in most of her movies, but I saw her in Heart of Justice and she was perfect for Francine in some parts. She could do it. Jodie Foster would be a great actor for Katchoo — full of fire and command with the traces of heart everywhere. Freddie’s like that guy we talked about from Perfect Strangers, and David… I’m not sure. He’s young and Asian-American in the story… maybe Keanu Reeves?