Terry Moore is a creator whose work I have had little to no exposure to. I have always seen Strangers in Paradise trade paperbacks on the shelves and posters on the wall at my local comic shop, but I would walk by. I hear about Strangers from people all over the internet, but I click away. Word is that the movie was quite good, but I’ve never checked that out either. I deeply regret passing it by for all this time now that I have delved into Echo, Moore’s latest original creation.

Another thing I’ve always heard is that Terry Moore writes fantastic female characters. The first arc of Echo has made a believer out of me. Independently published under Moore’s Abstract Studio, Echo is a black and white science fiction comic about a photographer named Julie Martin. Julie was taking photographs in the desert one day when a science experiment being conducted nearby went suddenly awry. She was subsequently exposed to a strange alloy that is affecting her and others around her in ways that she does not yet understand. She just knows that she wants it gone. Julie meets new people along the way that have promised to help her figure out just what is happening to her, one of whom happens to have a vested interest.

There’s been some buzz around this book online and since it is independently published I think it will be around for a long time. The first five issues have been collected into a trade paperback only a month after the fifth issue’s release, and that is what I want to recommend to you this week. If you’re a Strangers in Paradise fan or you enjoyed the first issue of Runaways Vol. 3 – which Moore is also writing – I think Echo deserves a look. I’ll be going back and checking out some Strangers trades while you do that.