Yet another Strangers In Paradise Pocket Book...the fifth, and last for now (the final volume has yet to be issued). This is the long swath of the story in which Katchoo and Francine do not meet or speak at all. It's a tribute to Terry Moore's gift for characters that even without leaning on the central relationship of the series, he holds my attention.

Frnacine has married Brad the doctor. Katchoo is doing her best to go on without her, mostly by focusing on her art career. David and Katchoo almost get married, then decide it would never work (Katchoo is entirely gay) and just settle into sharing a house and loving each other. Casey in working as a Las Vegas showgirl. Freddie Femur is still a right-wing sexist blowhard, but he's still impossible to hate, somehow. The usual Parker Girl crime plot rears its head in this volume, but it's quickly resolved...in these pages, Terry Moore takes time to meander and experiment. There's a lot of prose here, a few different art styles, and a detour into the mind of a husband-killer named Molly who has only a tenuous connection to the established cast. The Molly tale is interesting, but very out of place here (especially since it ends the volume)...

Long-running comics (like long-running TV series) struggle to remain compelling as they go on...the sprawling canvas is hard to manage. SiP 5 is full of meandering and reflection; I wouldn't recommend it as a first taste of the series, but for a SiP junkie like me, it's candy.