Those who know me know that I’ve been a fan of Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise series for a long time.

I picked up the first pocketbook edition a few summers ago while I was doing summer Shakespeare, and was hooked ever since. What particularly drew me was Moore’s illustrations of women, and how strong the female characters were. It was around this time that I began scripting Mercedes Ray.

Usually in comic books, female characters have the proportions of a Barbie doll. But with SiP, the women were real, and really beautiful! Over the story’s progression, you see characters fluctuate in weight, hair style, complexion, all sorts of things that just made the world become so much more alive. Besides, how could you go wrong with a kick-ass, bisexual, female, blonde artist named Katchoo who has more moves than Batman on a good day?

SiP ended last year, but luckily Moore is already churning out a new series, this time a superheroesque title called Echo.

Echo follows an amateur photographer named Julie Martin (if it had been Stan Lee writing this I’d imagine her name would be Julie Julianna or something), who is wandering around the desert taking pictures when an experimental battle suit explodes overhead. Pieces of the suit fall onto her and her truck, beginning to form what looks like will become some sort of exoskeleton battle suit.

A first as far as I’ve read in comicdom is Julie’s struggle with divorce. She refuses to sign the papers while her husband Rick wants nothing to do with her. She also has an older sister stuck in a mental hospital, and a dog who she can’t afford to feed.

Not so sure about this one yet. Luckily the same real world detail is present, and Moore’s ability to write strong leading women still rival’s Joss Whedon.