Terry Moore To Bring Back Strangers in Paradise in 2018

One of the most acclaimed creator-owned comics of the last 25 years is returning with new stories for the first time in more than a decade.

Terry Moore's forthcoming series Motor Girl will not be a multi-year epic like Strangers in Paradise, Echo, and Rachel Rising. Instead, the series will last only about a year before Moore returns to his long-running series Strangers in Paradise in time for the 25th anniversary of the series' first release in 2018.

Strangers in Paradise, which ran from 1993 until 2007, was Moore's entree in the world of comic books after a career in advertising, music, and animation. It centered on three friends (Katchoo, David, and Francine) who had a complex relationship -- and two of whom had dangerous, intersecting pasts.

Since the series ended in 2007, Moore has never totally left the world of Strangers in Paradise behind: supporting characters from the series played key roles in both Echo and Rachel Rising, and Moore has done a number of all-ages one shots called SIP Kids, depicting them in comedic situations and drawn in comic strip style.

At one point during Rachel Rising, a character on an autopsy table resembled Freddie Femur, a major supporting character and antagonist from Strangers in Paradise. Moore said that fans frequently asked him whether or not it was intended to be a sad end for the much-loved, much-loathed character...but he assured an audience at Paris Comic Con this weekend that wasn't the case.

"I want to go back to Strangers in Paradise, Moore told an audience at his spotlight panel, which you can see embedded above. In 2018 is the 25th anniversary."So I need Freddie Femur around, because Katchoo needs somebody to pick on."

LIVE on #Periscope: Terry Moore panel at Paris Comic Con. Bonjour!! https://t.co/I5hoswyobP

— TM_Paris Comic Con (@TerryMooreArt) October 22, 2016

While it may have seemed like an offhand remark in context, Moore followed it up with a number of tweets verifying his plans to bring the series back. He had mentioned something similar to this reporter at New York Comic Con earlier this month.

One of the main characters in Moore's upcoming Motor Girl, a sci-fi comedy about a woman who repairs UFOs, Katchoo's Aunt Libby is a main character.

"So maybe in my last comic, all of these characters will end up in the same hotel, and chaos ensues," Moore joked."And that will be my last genre writing: The Grand Hotel, my way."

Moore had previously announced a Strangers in Paradise prose novel as a follow-up to the series for its twentieth anniversary, but never managed to get it off the ground while still working on the ongoing Rachel Rising series.

Strangers in Paradise has been optioned for the screen a few times, with the option always expiring before any actual adaptation taking place. Rachel Rising was optioned shortly after it debuted, but that pilot -- for which Moore was supposedly writing the script -- didn't get off the ground, either. As with 2009's Watchmen movie and AMC's recent hit Preacher, it's generally assumed that it's only a matter of time before somebody figures out how to make Strangers in Paradise happen in live action.

Check back later this week for more from Moore on Motor Girl, his plans for Strangers in Paradise, and more.