Strangers in Paradise #89 & #90 - Abstract Studio

I did it again somehow. But . . . I missed issue #89. I have no idea how I did that. So as I sat there looking at issue #90 at the top of my pile . . . . I had to do just that . . . . look at it. There's no way I could pick up this issue and read it before I read #89. It just wouldn't be right. But I so want to know how this series ends. It's sitting right there. I could read it, satisfy my current inner struggle, and then pick up #89 when I get a chance. But . . . I don't. Why? Because I feel invested in these characters . . . and while I do want to know how their story ends . . . I also want to feel it played out as they're feeling it. Yes . . . I know they're not real people. But with this book especially, when reading it, and thinking about how the story affect the characters, and how the characters affect the story . . . it's hard not to think of them, or the story, as real. Maybe that's just a little crazy of me. But . . . that's how much I get in to this story. How much I love these characters. And how magnificent of a job Terry Moore has done in putting us in to their lives. I know Terry Moore wrote this series. But, I'm willing to guess, that he's laid such a good foundation over the last few years, that the last few issues of this story pretty much wrote itself. You've all read writer's notes about how their original intentions for a story-arc were different than what they actually ended up with, because the characters wanted it to go in a different direction. And by that I mean . . . there's such a history set up and written down with a character . . . especially ones like these . . . that to write a story a certain way, you may have to force them to react a certain way. But . . then as you're writing it, you realize that's not how they would react. Just like real people, you can't force them to do anything. Then when you write the story more true to the character's character . . . it ends up completely different than from what you originally planned. I'm willing to bet that's how the final issues of this book were for Terry. I bet that following the characters, and their natural progression through the series of events that they were involved in . . . was more about him telling what would happen, or how it happened, rather than actually having to think about writing the story. What I'm really trying to say by all this is that Terry basically wrote a huge novel. A novel that spanned years. Literally! And in that time made us to come to love a cast of characters. We got to know them. We got to see them at their highs and their lows. And through the course of time, became invested in their lives. For that . . . I sincerely thank Terry Moore. You brought a great story in to our lives, and helped us live it vicariously through your characters. It's been a great ride. A great story. And I'm certain we're all sad to see them go. But . . . at the same time . . . thankful for what we did experience. Thank-You!