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The first time I really came across SIP was from reading Drew Hayes' Poison Elves. Because of things I read in some of his issues, I intentionally went to the local comic shop and hunted down the first tbp (there was only one out at the time) and after reading it, hunted down all the issues til I was up to date. I wound up buying more of the tbps so I could read them at breaks at work and not worry about damaging the issues in my backpack. I have been a loyal fan of Terry's getting each issue as it comes out ever since. How did the rest of you get hooked?
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if the world is going nuts, who has the nutcracker?
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i was recommeneded strangers in paradise. i went to my local comic shop and saw issue thirty sitting nicely on the shelf. to tell you the truth it didnt look that interesting. i didnt look through it but the cover wasn't that impressive. just as i was getting ready to leave i decided to pick strangers up because there really wasnt much i was taking. it might as well been injected into a vain cos once i read it and reading peoples letters in the letters section i just had to go back. i've been loyally reading strangers since.
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laughing is the only way i can keep from screaming .
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Well, once upon a time, I worked in a comic store, and SiP was just one of those B&W indies we sold very few of.
Well, I read a little blurb in Wizard, and thought, hey, we carry that book, and pulled the latest issue off the rack, and put it in my hold box. Later that day, a girl came in and asked if it was in. I said, well, yes, it came in but we were sold out. She was so disappointed, I gave her the copy out of my hold box, cause I figured I would be working when we got restock, and could just snag a copy then. Well, as I said, we didn't sell many copies back them, and restock never came in. I forgot about it until a few weeks later the Wizard Ace Edition of v1, #1 came in. I read it, loved it, ordered the first trade, then the second and immediately started collecting the issues. I had a full run, v1 and up, but sold them as the hardcovers came out. I hope that girl I sacrificed my first chance to buy #10 to is still out there reading SiP!
Darth
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'If a man is willing to die, he can be killed'
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
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I was hooked through the trickery of the underground world of "comic dealers." The first one was free, or course, and I was told "it'll make you feel good." Now I have a habit.
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"They mostly come out at night. Mostly." --Newt, Aliens
"I can crack all your ribs, but I can't break your heart." --Jill Sobule
"Take it easy, but take it." --Woody Guthrie
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GeminiCancer--you crack me up!! http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smile.gif
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if the world is going nuts, who has the nutcracker?
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Well, being the ex-wife of an avid comic book reader, I learned the love of comics YEARS ago. Then about a year ago someone handed me a TPB of High School, and I really dug it, so I started to buy more. Well, the more I read, the more I LOVED and well, now here I am....buying every issues as it comes out, taking days off work to meet Terry Moore when he comes to town, and crying when he "kills off" people. Who knew all this would happen from reading one TPB.
---Lyric054
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One day I picked up Vol. II, #12. I read the three little panels just after David reads Francine's note. "I don't understand, Katchoo. What's the problem? She says she's happy." "No, she's not! She says she's hurt and confused! Don't you see that?! It's right there in black and white!"
At that instant I was hooked.
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Peregrinator in paradiso.
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Saw the cover of Issue 2 Vol 1,(dripping blood) in 1994 in think,ordered it,read it and have not regreted it since. http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smile.gif
I`m so hooked that I have bought everything that had to do with SIP,phonecards,bookmarkers,prints,TPB,HC,T shirts,statues,key ring,pins,trading card sets,and even some orginial artwork. http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smile.gif
I think it`s fair to say,this bunny is hooked... http://www.freakygamers.com/smilies/s/kao/otn/imu2.gif
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It's simple tips like these
That keep you safe from injuries
The surgeon general should do his part:
Warning, beware, be careful - Fragile Heart
Words By Jewel(EDA)
[This message has been edited by happybunny2 (edited November 03, 2001).]
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Volume 2, number 1: I glanced at the cover showing Kat & Fran on a rooftop - Fran in a slip or somesuch - and I thought it was lesbian erotica. Honest. I thought someone put it in the general display area by mistake, instead of the back room with the rest of the porn.
Thank God I was wrong! http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
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something witty.
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My boyfriend (at the time) runs a comic shop, he was bond & determined to get me to read a few titles.
He handed me the 1st trade paperback, I came back to his house the next day & ransacked his shelf read all the SIP that he had & I've been hooked ever since.
I hadn't touche comic book since I was a kid reading MAD & Archie.
I also read Small Favors (a girly porno lol!), Code Name Knock Out!, & The Death trades as well as any other Neil Gamin trade I can get my hands on.
JUlie
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Julie
I'm not Kissing you, I'm whispering in your mouth.
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Like Darth, I saw a write-up in Wizard about Mr. Moore and the critical acclaim surrounding his little book. I plunked down $8.00 at an indie comic shop for the first TPB and have been reading ever since, no matter how Terry has tortured me with papercuts from rapid skimming to absorb the plot and caused me whiplash from the double-takes. =)
(Although my copy of #44 has yet to arrive and I'm starting to get REALLY testy... damn bio-terrorists and such. I know it's the USPS' fault it's late- anthrax protocols and all.)
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Danielle :0)
Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness. -James Thurber
When angry, count four. When very angry, swear. -Mark Twain
Never forget that 'stressed' spelled backwards is 'desserts'.
If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.
-Catherine Aird
Treat everyone the same until you find out they're an idiot.
-Lucy Lawless
Be kind, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. -Philo
"But what is done in fury, or anger, can never be placed to the account of courage. Were it otherwise, womankind might claim to be the stoutest sex; for their hatred and anger have ever been the strongest and most lasting."
-From 18th century work "Senus Communis" by Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
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An on-line review column (entitled something to the effect: comics you're not reading but should) did a review of SIP. I picked up volume 2 that week (and a TPB volume a day for the next four days (I think only five were out at that point). I've long since lost track of the reviewer but remain in debt for the review.
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A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. -Alexander Pope
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For me it was simple, but hard to explain... I had heard a 'buzz' about the comic, but I don't remember where. My guess is that I saw some article or info about it in Previews when SiP moved to Image for the 'color' issues.
I was wandering in this underground comic store (in Wilmington, DE of all places) instead of my usual haunts. I bought Strangers in Paradise Vol III,Issue #3 (the one right before Francine goest to the gym) and Kurt Busiek's Astro City Vol II, Issue #1.
I forget if I waited one week or two before purchasing the first trade paperback. Now it's a 'Rob does the dance of joy when SIP has arrived at my dealers.
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My addiction story - My local comic book store guy kept introducing me to fabulous comic series....that had long ago ended. So I'd read them all up - Sandman, The Watchmen, The Books of Magic - and then, that's it, that's all she wrote, nothing more. It was driving me crazy. So he said he'd find me a current comic without an ending.
He pointed out SIP. At first glance, the artwork reminded me of the Betty's Diary comics my mother used to buy for me when I was home sick from school. And at first glance, Francine and Katchoo resembled Veronica and Betty. (god, how soon I'd realize how wrong that was!) But there was something about it that had...edge. So I decided to give it a shot and start from the beginning - I bought the first edition hardback.
Read it that night. Bought the rest the next day. Read them. Read all the way up until the point where I was caught up. Then I got my first comic subscription. :-)
And by the way, I haven't received the new issue either. I saw it in the comic book store and nearly had to sit on my hands to keep from reading it. I keep telling myself that it's worth the wait, that it's coming in the mail, that I already bought it...but the wait's killing me.
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A few years back a Buffalo Comic artist (one of my mentors) ave me a copy of the Small Press Swimsuit Issue. In it is that infamous picture of Francinc in the bikini that 'fit last year'.
Nearly half a decade later I wander into a comic store in Buffalo (visiting my dad) and spot an issue of SIP with a familiar character on the cover. Intregued, I pick up the comic and purchase it. I read that one issue and think,
"Omigod, that is soooo scary, I gotta' show Jenny (my gf at the time and, Francine's doppelganger)"
I just got a severe need to know the whole story and the two of us got hooked. I'm mostly in it for the familiar feeling, but it's a goddam good comic all the same!
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The maverick heroine of STP land, avenger against those who would kick off with pretty women;
Hero to some, just another pretty face to others.
The cutest little lesbian.
THE Lesbian.
...Without love, we are never more than Strangers In Paradise.
"Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane
mittam. Utinam barbari spatium proprium tuum invadant!"
(I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head. May barbarians invade your personal space!)
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A fellow lesbitarian(sic)he he and comic book store owner - knew that I was just getting into comics and I loved reading HeroBear And The Kid. She asked me if I had ever read SIP. I admitted I didn't and she rolled her eyes like I lived under a rock. "You've never read Strangers In Paradise? Omigod". She went on and on anout how great the series was and the next day I went into the local comic book shop and picked up the #1 Trade. I've been hooked ever since. Soon enough I wasn't satififed with having all ten of the trades, so I've been trying to collect all the individual issues of all three volumes. Even ugh Molly And Poo. I'm halfway there! Once I have them all I will keep thim in a longbox under my bed and gloat over them like a troll.
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Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night - may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is full and bright.
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I had heard about the book (I think through Wizard) and while at a comics show I picked up Vol 2, Issue 2 because the cover just amazed me. That same weekend, I went to one of my local comic shops and bought the first tpb and all the issues that were out at the time (Vol 2 up to issue 11). I've been hooked since.
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The ninja lesbian milk getter. aka dorkflakes.
Take the time to look up at the moon and stars.
Clicking on that banner keeps Hostboard alive. Please help by clicking once
a day.
ChatterBox
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*passes around some Oreos*
I was at a comic shop waiting for some friends to arrive so I could play Magic the Gathering when I saw this comic, with a guy covered in blood screaming his head off (Issue 34). I go "Ok this looks like an action-packed read"
BOY WAS I WRONG.
I fell in love with the comic when I saw David had a conscience! How many comics do you read where a person has remorse over killing someone?
I knew I had to find out everything about the plane, etc so I got the back issues, then bought 37 (which made want to get MORE back issues lol)
Funny thing is I wanted to buy back issues but didn't know which so I got the "dark scary covers" first because they looked so cool.
I was NOT disappointed.
And though I bitched about issue 43, I just bought it to add to my collection http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smile.gif
I miss Vernonica though http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/frown.gif
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My list of required comic reading has waxed and waned like lunar phases. I'd heard of SiP, but never from a source I considered reliable enough to plunk down money.
In the midst of a discussion over a game of cards, a friend of mine handed me the TPB and said, "Trust me, you'll like it. Heck, you're named David and date a girl who looks like Francine. You can read on this on the condition that you swear you'll let me know if you ever meet Katchoo." Talk about getting my curiosity fired up; at the least I wanted to know what he was talking about. I read through the whole thing before I let them deal the next hand.
- Pookah
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It was pretty simple in my case. I'm a fan of Elizabeth Watasin (the cartoonist who used to do "Adventures of A-Girl", and now does "Charm School" for Slave Labor). One day she dropped me a note that said she was going to have a story in the back of this new comic called "Strangers In Paradise". So when vol. 1 no. 1 arrived at the store, I grabbed it right up. Needless to say, Terry's work hooked me immediately, and I've been here ever since. Elizabeth's strip was good too. http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smile.gif
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J. Kevin Carrier
Fantasy Theater: http://members.aol.com/jkcarrier/fantasy.htm
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Several years ago my husband (boyfriend at the time) was in one of those phases to get back into stuff from his youth. One of his things was getting back into comic books. I never really read comics even when I was younger so was not really that interested. Then he bought the first tpb. I saw it and instantly had to read it. Then I was hooked and have been buying issues ever since.
Later I started giving other comics a try. SIP opened my eyes to a whole new medium.
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The first time I read Strangers in Paradise was this summer. I bought my first tpb from Terry himself at the Chicago Comicon. It was number 6, the high school tpb. I had never read SIP before but, I had seen the art and somehow new that I would love it and I do!! I am addicted. I have all the tpb's now and I had to buy issue 44 cause I couldn't wait for the next tpb.
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I came to love SIP from a crime. My cousin stole me issue 5 of Volume 2 when I was in high school. I never read it until about 2 years ago when I moved out to Seattle and was dying of homesickness. After that I fell in love and scooped up every issue. It is by far the best words and pictures I have read in the 16 years I've been reading comics (started when I was 8). No one else I know reads it where I live...so feel free to email me, I'd love to talk.
Ron
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Find what's good, and make it last.
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Hmmm... randomly looking up comics on search engines, I came across SiP.
So, I ordered it online. Mind you, this was before I was an internet junky. This was the first time I'd ever ordered anything online. I'd never been on a message board, or anything. Hell, I was about to give up on the net as "potentially useful, but not interesting enough to waste time on".
So, my book (I dream of you) comes in the mail. I read it to rags (Terry can verify this, he signed the poor thing in Chicago this summer). Ended up buying all the books... but it took forever cause I had to order them, and well, you know how it goes.
Finally finished all the books, started picking up the comics. Saw the ad for the website. Ended up here.
Got dragged over to Stranger Than Paradise by Branflakes (back in the day when she was working on her 12000 post count).
So, the internet hooked me on SiP, and SiP hooked me on the internet.
And then I moved to MI to be with someone I met on the boards... and we've been together a year this month.
It's a weird book, now innit?
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Give me an edit button, and I'll moderate the WORLD!!!
The Neil & Neal Show
And I would like, right now, to demand the impossible: peace. ~ Jadian
[email protected]
[email protected]
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How I got hooked-
I was on my last family vacation in boston, the year before I turned 18. Needless to say, I had not yet found myself. I had no interests to call my own. I followed my cousin, whom I percieved as the essence of cool, to a comic store. In an effort to impress him by seeming a tough comic-book chickie, a guy's girl... I set out on a desperate search for something that spoke to me. I found a one-shot that perked my interest, "kill your boyfriend." The name seemed suitably intmidating. Somewhere near it was one issue of SIP. The one with Katchoo in the bath in her leather jacket. I debated for an hour whether to buy it. I didn't. I went home and read "kill your boyfriend." There was an ad for SIP in it. I forced my father to drive me right back to the store to buy it, I didn't know why I needed it, I just did. I bought the one issue and felt my heart break as I read these feelings I had inside put into words. I returned again and bought the first 3 TPBs. I saw a familiar struggle within all of the characters. And I cried because I had finally discovered that I had the strength within myself to make my own choices. That there was no reason to mold myself into what I *thought* I should be. That was 3 years ago, and I am still struggling with finding my own voice. But SIP has been there everytime I've gotten off-track and lost myself. It reminds me that I can do anything I want, that there are no wrong answers. That I am not the only one.
Thank you Terry.
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It was Anaka's fault. She got me hooked, and cost me a night's sleep, too. It was worth it though. I was visiting her and her GF (Hey CatCat!) and was just getting ready to crash on the futon when she handed me her collection of SIP and said I might like to check it out. I put them aside and read some Elfquest until about an hour after they had retired for the evening. I was tired, but I thought I'd humor her. I was hooked 5 pages into the first tpb. I stayed up all night reading them, rereading them, and savoring every nuance. Anaka came in the next morning to find me on the last issue she had. It was then that I let out my first cry of horror at finding the letters column rather than more story. (I still do this, by the way. Every Issue. I can't help it.) Thanks Anaka!
MO
(This is a new handle. I forgot my old one. heh)
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I had a friend that I used to hang out with after school. We would watch movies (Heavenly Creatures, Doom Generation, Tori Amos video collections) and read comics. She got me started on Bondage Fairies (very dirty) and SIP. Christinethebean (god bless her) let me borrow every single issue to read. And read I did. Until there was no more and I was crying and shivering in withdrawal. I still get the same feeling every time I finish a brand new issue and realize that I must wait a whole 6 weeks before I can read another. The addiction is strong, and I'm spreading it to everyone I know--my mother, coworkers, friends, and yes, my girlfriend too.
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I was just starting to work at a coffee shop, and one of the girls getting off work was wearing a signed Wolverine shirt. I asked who the signature was, she said it was Jim Lee, and we talked about comics for awhile then and a few other times we worked together or crossed between shifts. Soon she recommended SiP, so I picked up the newest issue (#33) and as many consecutive back issues as my store had (back to #30). Absolutely blown away. So, of course, I ordered a trade off ebay ("I Dream of You"), introduced it to my girlfriend (now fiance) and together we collected the rest of the books and I kept up with the issues to present.
So, if you post here, or happen by this note, thanks Misha.
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Well, it was a cold day in Georgia when I went cruising for a Gen13 comic and stumbled across SIP, the comic guy just gave me a grin and tld me that I would be back for more, I told him "yeah, whatever" and walkd out the door. Little did I know. The next day I was back and bought out his entire back issue box. Then all the TPB found their way to my house. Then I joined the Marines and was lost for a year then was re-united in San Diego while at a school. Once again, bought all the back issues I could find and TPBs. I got my ex-fiance hooked, and she lives in a small town and has to drive 50 miles to get SIP (revenge is so sweet) http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smile.gif. I have also hooked my wife and numerous other people. My entire office fights constantly over my TPBs.....Terry, what a wonderful drug you have made......Dale
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Do not mettle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with Catsup.
Never argue with an idiot. They just bring you to their level and beat you with experiance.
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Well, it was a cold day in Georgia when I went cruising for a Gen13 comic and stumbled across SIP, the comic guy just gave me a grin and tld me that I would be back for more, I told him "yeah, whatever" and walkd out the door. Little did I know. The next day I was back and bought out his entire back issue box. Then all the TPB found their way to my house. Then I joined the Marines and was lost for a year then was re-united in San Diego while at a school. Once again, bought all the back issues I could find and TPBs. I got my ex-fiance hooked, and she lives in a small town and has to drive 50 miles to get SIP (revenge is so sweet) http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smile.gif. I have also hooked my wife and numerous other people. My entire office fights constantly over my TPBs.....Terry, what a wonderful drug you have made......Dale
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Do not mettle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with Catsup.
Never argue with an idiot. They just bring you to their level and beat you with experiance.
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My introduction to SIP was one of those clear cases of comic book karma. When my nephew was about 5 years old. I wanted badly to bond with him because I did not intend to have children of my own and my role was to be the eccentric, artistic uncle. But how do you bond with a 5 year old? My own interest in comics had diminished greatly, down to select titles like Frank Miller's Daredevil and weird amusing stuff like Tank Girl. I had sold most of my collection but I had a box of about 1,000 that were not sellable -- folded comics to fit in my back pocket or unsellable stuff. I gave the whole box to my sister knowing she would just leave it for Alex to discover.
Flashforward 10 years and my now 15 year-old nephew is heavily into Neil Gaman and Cerebus and the X-Men stuff and arty stuff like Paul Pope and Dave McKean. He was becoming a fantastic comic artist in his own right. He grew into a good friend with whom I exchanged opinions and now he was recommending all this stuff I could never find time to read. After numerous exhortations to try SIP I finally did, borrowing all of his issues (Vol. 2 which was ending it's run.)
Man, I love this comic book so much. Some other stuff gets me excited, especially radical political ideas. But I never laughed out loud on a crowded New York City train until SIP. I never cried while reading a comic until SIP. I never felt so much for fictional comic characters and wanted to be friends with them.
It's my mission now to share this LITERARY joy and heartache with my friends. They are mostly female and all but one never read comics. I pay homage to them now because they are wise and artistic enough to recognize a good read. They've caught up through my lending them the collections and now I've weaned them into the six-week wait between issues. We are better friends because we now share a love of these characters and discuss each issue.
Sorry for ranting. Thank you Alex for the payback. Thanks to Terry Moore for enriching my life. And here's to my friends Ronda, Ruth, Yajaira, Beth, Teri, and my cousin Nora. I have made each of them vow to give me an introduction to Katchoo if they come across her!! And thanks to all of you on the list for knowing what I'm talking about.
Josh
hormonal, in Brooklyn
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Josh
from Brooklyn
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I was in Minnesota, in '96, on a contracting job (computer consultant). As I knew no-one in town (St. Paul/Minneapolis), the local comic shop was my steady hangout spot.
After a few weeks of purchases and loitering (in conversation with the salesfolk), one of the clerks recommended SiP, having seen and heard the things I tended to like. Good call... and I've been hooked ever since.... AND I have since inflicted this SiP obsessions upon others. I especially love being a guy and hearing women talk about how they don't read comics 'cause it's just "guys in tights" -- then I lend 'em one of my TPBs.... another addict is born!!!
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I was in Minnesota, in '96, on a contracting job (computer consultant). As I knew no-one in town (St. Paul/Minneapolis), the local comic shop was my steady hangout spot.
After a few weeks of purchases and loitering (in conversation with the salesfolk), one of the clerks recommended SiP, having seen and heard the things I tended to like. Good call... and I've been hooked ever since.... AND I have since inflicted this SiP obsessions upon others. I especially love being a guy and hearing women talk about how they don't read comics 'cause it's just "guys in tights" -- then I lend 'em one of my TPBs.... another addict is born!!!
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I was in Minnesota, in '96, on a contracting job (computer consultant). As I knew no-one in town (St. Paul/Minneapolis), the local comic shop was my steady hangout spot.
After a few weeks of purchases and loitering (in conversation with the salesfolk), one of the clerks recommended SiP, having seen and heard the things I tended to like. Good call... and I've been hooked ever since.... AND I have since inflicted this SiP obsessions upon others. I especially love being a guy and hearing women talk about how they don't read comics 'cause it's just "guys in tights" -- then I lend 'em one of my TPBs.... another addict is born!!!
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Hmmm.
I had gotten connected to the internet at the end of '98. At the beginning of '99 I was seriously addicted to Xena Fanfic (still am if the right thing comes along) As many others, I visited Lunatic Fanfic recommendations, and when the SiP/Xena parody came out it got mentioned in the Lunatic Reviews, so I started doing searches about the comic.
Finally, I started looking around for comic book shops (I was newer to NY and didn't walk around much back then) walked into Midtown comics, where I bought the first TPB. I quickly bought the rest until I was caught up and stopped by this here board less than a month later. And well, here I still am. Reading SiP has gotten me into comics, funnily enough. In the recommendation pages, I found something about Kingdom Come, which of course, as the masterpiece that it is, made me believe that there was quality out there, so I checked the other titles out, and then recommendations from what peeps in the board read, and boy, I sure didn't think i was gonna be getting into all this when I was searching the net for some new Xena Fanfiction... http://www.hostboard.com/ubb/smile.gif
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"I'm telling you stories. Trust me." Jeanette Winterson
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A guy I knew bought the comic shop I got my books from. He had worked there the first time I went in and inquired about Silver Sable. We later met at a few parties and talked comics and he knew I liked strong women characters. So when he bought the shop, he gave me the first SIP trade to read and I was hooked.
Mike is a cool guy. I loved buying my books there, he took care of me. One month for the clean box contest he had SIP prizes and I won a signed sheet of the SIP cards uncut. It is very cool.
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Selah
The bridge between life and death is love.
