The Deal: The much-loved creator responsible for writing, drawing and publishing the indie hit Strangers in Paradise is back with a brand new comic series. His latest comic, titled Echo, strays away from the relationship-themed tales of SIP and instead tackles the world of science fiction.
The Good: I was always only a casual reader of SIP, but I've long admired Terry Moore's talent. His drawing blends the best aspects of "cartoony" illustration with traditional comic book art, and his writing expresses moments of hilarity, melancholy and terror with the same level of skill. After reading Echo, it's obvious that he hasn't missed a beat since his last series ended. This issue's tale gets started quickly and Moore piles on heaping amounts of humor and action from the first page. And the art is rendered in the same great black-and-white style he used on SIP.
The Bad: There's a contingency of fans out there who just don't dig black-and-white books. If you're one of those readers, you definitely won't dig Echo. Also, although this issue's story is fast-paced, Moore only tells the very beginnings of what's likely to be a very large epic. In that sense, the book is similar to the first issue of Jeff Smith's new comic book RASL (reviewed March 5, 2008), which started out in a rather decompressed fashion. Maybe it's trendy to slowly unfold a comic book series these days, but I'm not in love with this approach.
The Verdict: I plan to stick with this book for a minute and see how the story develops.
Reviewed materials furnished by Heroes Aren't Hard To Find: www.heroesonline.com.