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You may have gathered from browsing this site that I am a fan of artist and writer Terry Moore, who self-publishes comic books through Abstract Studios. Terry Moore had worked on comics like Echo, Rachel Rising, and of course Strangers In Paradise. My “fandom” had caused me to seek out the Best Terry Moore interview, and I think I have found it.
Somehow I found out about this DVD called Terry Moore: Paradise Found. It contains a Terry Moore interview, along with his sketchbooks, songs, himself drawing and inking, etc. I really have no idea how I heard of this DVD, because it’s practically non-existent anywhere. It is not on Amazon, Ebay, your local library, or even floating around the internet. You’ll never find it, unless you buy it directly from Hero Video Productions. The website to purchase it does not bring a whole lot of confidence, with broken links and a PayPal-only payment option. I decided to risk it anyway, even if it was nearly 25 dollars. Not that 25 for a DVD is unheard of, but I paid $1 for a Stan Lee interview in the Dollar Tree, so I wasn’t thrilled to pay it. It was worth it in the end though, because seeing Terry Moore do his thing is awe inspiring.
The great thing about this Terry Moore interview is that we see firsthand how hilarious he is. He is constantly cracking sarcastic jokes without batting an eye. We get to see a rare glimpse into his sketchbook, which helps to see how is mind works. On the DVD, we also get to see Terry Moore pencil and ink a drawing that closely resembles the front of the case; it is not exactly the same image, which I thought was strange.
Another interesting bonus feature on the DVD is that Terry Moore plays some of the songs shown as sheet music in the Strangers In Paradise comic. You see, Terry Moore used to be a musician, so he knows a thing or two about music. In the comic series, we would sometimes see sheet music, but to me it was all Greek. It is nice to actually hear some of it. In fact, owning the Paradise Found DVD becomes somewhat of a necessity because of this.
During the Terry Moore interview, he confirms several things which I had speculated. For one, he draws women because he would rather draw women over men. It doesn’t make a difference either way, but it’s nice to see someone actually admit it. More importantly though, Terry Moore admits to something which I felt was the Achilles’ heel of Strangers In Paradise: he was making it up as he went along. He also admits that he didn’t care. This bothers the crap out of me. The story was tanking because nothing new or interesting was going on. This is what I meant when I said to just skip volume 3 altogether. He should have at least made each issue a mini adventure where each issue provided a short story with enough entertainment to justify the purchase. Instead each issue was a fragment of a continuing story that you did not care where it was headed… because the writer himself did not care neither.
Paradise Found is one heck of a Terry Moore interview, and I must say that Hero Video Productions had done a fantastic job. If you never heard of Strangers in Paradise or Terry Moore, you definitely want to consider giving it a read. (affiliate link) Otherwise, see if you can track down this DVD, which I highly recommend.
Fan of Terry Moore? Leave a comment below and tell me your thoughts.