Strangers in Paradise Omnibus Coming This Summer

We're all big fans of Terry Moore at IGN Comics. His current horror story/character drama Rachel Rising has consistently earned high ratings form our Review Crew (as did Echo before it), not to mention taking home IGN's Best Indie Series of 2012 award. But Moore first made a name for himself during the 90s and early 2000s on a series titled Strangers in Paradise. That project spanned three volumes and over 100 issues, all the while chronicling the ups and downs of the lives of a trio of friends -- Katchoo, Francine, and David.

With 2013 being the 20th anniversary of SiP's launch, Moore has a handful of new projects in the works to celebrate his signature series. One is a sequel to SiP in the form of a prose novel. But that novel has temporarily taken a backseat to another long-awaited release. Moore has announced that June will finally see the release of the softcover version of the Strangers in Paradise Omnibus. A hardcover edition was released several years ago at SDCC. It included a number of improvements over previous SiP collections. As Moore describes on his website,

"There is no question that the ultimate Strangers In Paradise collection is the Omnibus Edition. To make that edition, I carefully went over every page and corrected art, spelling, errors, removed all censorship (words and images) and I rearranged some scenes to put them in perfect chronological order. No other tpb or pocket edition got this final edit. The story reads perfectly. The Omnibus is my final version."

For all those improvements and the sheer amount of content included, the Omnibus was priced at a surprisingly modest $125. Unfortunately, that low price coupled with the Omnibus' relatively low print run ensured that it sold out quickly. This softcover printing finally offers fans and newcomers a chance to experience this "final version" without paying inflated eBay prices. This edition consists of two large paperback volumes of roughly 1100 pages each collected in a slipcase cover. The cover price is even lower than the hardcover edition at $100.

The Omnibus will be solicited in Diamond's April Previews catalog for a June/July release. However, Moore put out an appeal to fans and retailers:

"Why has it taken 6 years since the end of SiP to make this softcover Omnibus? The answer is simple: it is very expensive to print and the printing must be paid before the book ships. This means, I have to pay for everything before the industry can help with purchases. The cost of printing the softcover Omnibus is shockingly high. But after 5 years Robyn and I have decided it will never happen if we don’t go out on a limb and take the risk. So we are printing the book at great personal risk, because we believe the fans and retailers will support us and buy the book once it is available. I’ve always believed in SiP. Now I’m putting my money where my mouth is. But I need your support."

As an incentive to pre-order, Moore will be including an exclusive art print with all copies of the Omnibus ordered directly through his online store. A different art print will be included with copies pre-ordered through Diamond, though it will be up to individual retailers whether to pass it along to customers or sell it separately.

The moral of the story? Pre-order this Omnibus. At $100 for 2200 pages, it's about the best cost-to-page-count ratio you'll find this side of the Bone: One Volume Edition trade. If you have any interest at all in comics that don't feature capes and tights, this is a no-brainer.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

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