Customer Reviews

Echo Volume 1: Moon Lake

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

ECHO: MOON LAKE,
Terry Moores "Echo" series is one of the most enjoyable comic books that I've read in a long time. As someone that's collected comics for over 30 years now, I've seen a lot of creative highs and lows. It's not very often that a comic can grab you right from the first page and have you on the edge of your seat, anxiously awaiting each issue. Echo is one of those comics.

Terry Moore is famous of course for his epic series "Strangers In Paradise". Like that title, Echo is full of enjoyable characters who look and talk like real people. Echo has interesting characters that you care about from the very beginning. Echo is a fascinating and far more complex twist on Captain Atom. The story introduces us to Annie Trotter, testing a new flight suit when she is seemingly destroyed in an explosion caused by the very people for whom she is testing the new organic metal suit.

Far below the explosion is nature photographer Julie Martin. While photographing desert flora, small pellets of metal fall from the sky, some of it sticking to her skin. Soon the little metal pellets gather together to form a breastplate that seems to be permanently attached to her skin and which reacts either pleasantly or violently depending on Julies brainwaves. The mysterious organization that Annie created the suit for...HeNRI is intent on getting back the remains as well as covering up just exactly what happened to Annie. They hire a special investigator named Ivy Raven to track down Julie Martin and return whatever remains of the strange metal.

But a mysterious drifter has also been similarly affected by the mysterious metal just as Julie has, and he has no qualms about using its power to kill. Before long Julie is helped by Annie's boyfriend, park ranger Dillon Murphy as they try to stay one step ahead of HeNRI, Ivy Raven and the homicidal drifter as well as trying to find out what the strange metal is and just what happened to Annie.

Terry Moore does a great job of fleshing out the characters as well as doing some wonderful artwork. His characters have a great realism and a genuine emotion to them as anyone that's read Strangers In Paradise can attest. The story had me engrossed and entertained right from the beginning.

Echo: Moon Lake gathers Echo issues 1 through 5. My one problem with this trade is that they didn't reprint the covers, which I thought were just lovely. The trade is pretty bare bones. There are a couple of sketches of Moore art in the back but that's pretty much it. But this is a fun, fast paced black and white gem of a story that I have really enjoyed reading and I would highly suggest it to anyone.

this is a solid story, i don't have the trade paperback but i do have all five original issues, i am very interested to see where the store and characters go, especially with the main young woman going through a divorce, being broke and not sure where her life is going until that day in the desert when something comes out of the sky and attaches itself to her, but i won't give any more away from that. the artwork is fantastic, here's hoping we get some big action in future volumes.

Terry Moore, the author of one the best romantic comedies, "Strangers in Paradise," is printing a comic book of a different genre. A drama infused with nuclear weapons, "Echo" is closer to the super-hero genre than the previous title.

In this graphic novel, Julie, a woman with financial trouble from a break-up with her husband, was taking photographs by the lake. A woman named Annie, works with HeNRI to test out a new weapon. "This Weapon," when touch by something gentle as a feather does no harm, but when hit by a strong force can be dangerous.
Just as Julie was by the lake with her camera, Annie was involved in a weapon test gone wrong...
Witnessing an explosion, Julie was exposed to a substance that formed into a breast plate on her chest and shoulders. Eventually she finds it to be violent when touched aggressively. She doesn't know how or why.
Julie is unsure what is happening to her but apparently she's dangerous. Someone is after her as well, but someone close to Annie is willing to help.

The story and characters are still new to me, but develop well so far. The artwork is excellent. In black and white, Terry Moore puts a lot of detail and love into his work. The women in this story are fairly normal and respectable (and very pretty).

ECHO is off at a good start.
I'm currently collecting the comic issues, and I haven't seen the paperback edition yet. According to Terry Moore's web page, this has issues #1-5.
Although I prefer the comedy Strangers in Paradise, ECHO is a good read, and was worth looking into.

The first thing you should do when reading this comic is to try not to think of Moore's other work, Strangers in Paradise. I know, I know. It's hard to separate yourself from his other work- especially since occasionally you'll see whispers of some character traits in this book. It's difficult, but not impossible & it's very important that you don't compare it to SiP because otherwise you'll feel a teensy bit let down in comparison.

Echo is about a freelance photographer, Julie Martin. Julie isn't having a very good time right now. She's broke, her husband is pressuring her to sign her divorce papers & she was in the middle of Moon Lake when a huge explosion occurred in the clouds. Small metal balls have attached themselves to her body & a strange metal plate was in the back of her truck. Upon further examination of the plate, both the plate & the balls formed a larger silver plate on her chest, bearing a strange symbol. It isn't long before Julie finds herself in more trouble as the government starts looking for her. The good news is that a bunch of men want her for her body. The bad news is that they don't care whether she's alive or dead.

Like I said earlier, when you compare this to Moore's other work (SiP) it falls a little flat. I have to admit, the first time I read through this volume I was a little disappointed. The second time I read it, I liked it more & I realized that I wasn't judging it fairly.

I liked the idea of the suit & I liked the characters in this book for the most part. I have to admit that I'm not as into Julie as I am some of the other characters, though. She's a sympathetic character, but she's just not entirely a likable person- part of which I think is done on purpose. (Which actually makes me more intrigued by her as a character. Who says you have to be 100% in love with every character?)

The artwork is of course, beautiful. You really can't expect less from Moore- he really puts his heart & soul into his characters & art. The expressions are priceless & I like that Moore actually pays attention to details & makes the unimportant background characters just as detailed looking as his other characters.

The storyline so far is intriguing & I like that some parts of the story are explained & that much of it isn't. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the plot unfold as the book progresses- especially more about the mysterious "villains" that Julie & Dillon will have to face.

Moore gets this series off to an exceptional start. It features Moore's signature artwork: skilled black and white, in a natural and restrained style. Each character has a unique visual personality, but never succumbs to parody. Female characters project a believable mix of strength and softness, also tuned to each personality. And, although some super-heroic antics might appear in future issues of this series, it stays away from the BamPow of the commercial Super Hero In Tights (that's S-H-I-nevermind) genre.

Moore gives plenty of time for the situation to develop and for the players to take their places. If anything, the pace might drag a bit for some readers. Plenty of revelation remains for the future, too - like just what that metal carapace is and what it will do, to Julie as well as the people around her. One senses that it will do just as much to the people on her side as to those on the other, but foreboding never collapses into melodrama.

If you want a story to begin and end between these covers - well, that doesn't happen. Instead, these opening chapters promise a long and exciting series. I look forward to the chapters ahead.

-- wiredweird

Julie Martin's life is crumbling before her eyes. Bill collectors are constantly harassing her, a state brought about by her separation from her husband, who is angrily demanding that she sign the divorce papers he has served her. She barely has enough money to feed herself, let alone her dog, and she's wracked with guilt over the mental debilitation of her sister, who lost her husband and her children in a horrible car accident and now resides in a facility, refusing to deal with the reality of her situation.

The outlook is bleak, yet Echo, Terry Moore's evocative independent series, is ever dreary, nor overly pessimistic. Even though every chapter of this first volume opens with a quote from Einstein warning humankind of the dangers of the nuclear age, we never lose sight of the hope for good people to do good things for good reasons.

That is, of course, in direct contrast to the driving force of the plot, which begins with a female military operative testing out a special suit--think Iron Man's armor made with lightweight, malleable, quantum-physics-inspired metal. Unfortunately for her, the military brass she serves is about to turn against her, in a test of the capabilities of the suit that involves blowing her up with an above-ground nuclear missile. Julie happens to be out in the desert taking pictures of the flora when the explosion happens, causing metal to rain down on her and mysteriously fuse to her body. Also in the area: a park ranger with ties to the doomed woman in the test suit.

As Moore proved in his revered classic series Strangers in Paradise, he is an eminently readable author, as well as an expressive illustrator. He proves so again here, giving this new series a sci-fi element that, while a little far-fetched, is relatable.

If Strangers in Paradise established Moore's reputation as a dynamic talent in the indie world, Echo firmly solidifies it. This first volume just gets the action started and leaves us thoroughly intrigued with its two likable protagonists. After reading this, you'll be ready for more.
-- John Hogan

I started reading graphic novels with Strangers in Paradise, and devoured the whole series. I have been looking for something like that ever since, and not found it.

Echo, at least Vol 1, is not SiP, but it is good. I echo (no pun intended) the comments from the previous reviews, but the reproduction in the collected version I have looks like it was run on a very poor copy machine, or a CPM computer. Moore does very well with his black and white frames, and so it is a real shame the reproduction is so bad.

If the review was based totally on plot and inking, I would give it four starts, but it loses one for the bad quality.