Culture is, by definition, ever-changing and the pace it evolves seems to

be also constantly accelerating. Naturally, the 90s, in which both Ghost World
and Strangers in Paradise were published, saw a tremendous amount of evolution
in sociocultural aspects. Between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the war
on terror, the 1990s were a brief time of peace for the USA. It is commonly
remembered for the unstable economic prosperity resembling The Roaring
Twenties. Although some important events (The Los Angeles riots, The
Columbine Shooting, the impeachment of Bill Clinton, etc.) cast a shadow on
especially the latter half of the decade, the American economy was booming,
and the unemployment rate was at its lowest level in more than two decades.
Still, on the more invisible side, the inequality in the distribution of income was
growing. Reflections of economic inequality and hopes of a more luxurious life on
the younger generation clearly seen for the first time in Ghost World’s third
chapter Dunk Day when Enid and Rebecca run across John Crowley. Once a
“skinhead junkie”, he is attending business school to be a “big-ass corporate
fuck!” and he uses Enid’s family’s financial comfort to insult her. Strangers in
Paradise’s first volume introduces Freddie as the only specific representation of
the higher class, and he accumulated at least some part of his wealth by
corrupted means. Enid’s approach to politics can be read as the representation
of young generations’ attitude towards what was happening in the world – which
was indifferent - could come from either a brainwashed generation due to all
the propaganda meant to push society for a consumerism based lifestyle, from
the relatively relaxed and peaceful pace free from Cold War nightmare and
Middle Eastern terrorists or both combined really well. She takes politically
active people’s acts as in vain and comes up with the weakest arguments possible
-which were all over the media at those times- against them, like the
implications she makes about her father’s no-meat & no-shower attitude. She
believes that those kinds of behavior cannot change anything or “world is not a
better place because of them”. Even an extremely political music movement like
punk becomes a means for fashion and style in her (generation’s) perspective.
We see how everything that mattered in terms of people resisting and opposing
is undermined and sold as a product for entertainment. Another example of that
can be the politically active left-wing supporter friend of theirs chooses to
start her acting career at a right-wing election campaign’s ad.

       Socially, progressive sensibilities, while continuing strongly from the past
decades, inevitably also sparked an almost as strong backlash. The rising voice
of minorities was accused of going too far and the validity of their claims was
questioned. Perhaps most relevant to both Ghost World and Strangers in
Paradise, feminism was one of the matters at the center of culture wars. Even
the little success of feminist efforts had gained caused such panic among
conforming spheres which resulted in the resurgence of the praise for
traditional binary gender roles and disparagement of women’s achievements. Of
course, the criticism of the previous understandings of feminism was not only
coming from the opposing parties. A new wave of feminism with a focus on the
civil-rights, diversity, and individualism was born in the early 90s. As we can see
the reflections of it on Rebecca and Enid as “hipster” teenagers who are up to
date in terms of living slang and music movements. In Strangers in Paradise,
Terry Moore takes feminist sensitivities to the maximum by exaggerating both
the male (and some female) characters’ misogynist tendencies, Katchoo’s rage
against misogyny, and some male characters’ overly simplified urges and
behaviors. We can see some parallel character types in most 90s media; them
being the clichés now, was very common during the time. Yet, since the
protagonists are Katchoo and Francine with her story of liberation from
society’s expectations of women, the comic avoids an interpretation like a
parody of feminism and rather becomes feminist work with a touch of
caricaturization method adopted by the narrative of the period.

       One of the most important perspectives on the decade is based on the
developments in science and technology; the 1990s is undeniably the
Information Age. Mass production of cell phones and digitization of text, music,
and image redefined media and communications. Most of all, the creation of the
World Wide Web changed the world profoundly by giving rise to brand new
forms of commerce, creativity, and social interactions. The relative ease of
communication that the internet provided meant a rapid increase in the numbers
of alternative culture followers and the emergence of new subcultures. The
excessive use of the 90s slang in both (most obvious in Ghost World) inclines
that comics as a medium had a function of what the internet (websites like
Reddit, Netflix, Buzzfeed, Twitter, etc.) has in today’s world. Younger
generations tend to learn what is hype and acceptable from “cool” and realistic
characters talking in an everyday language and embrace their approach to issues
that mattered at the time. Just like the younger generations who watch Netflix
shows and embrace the characters’ language and attitude which leads to a
community, free from outdated national borders, formed through interests and
likes existing on the realm of the internet.

 
and just get on some bus to some random city and move there and become
this totally different person. And not come back until I had totally become this
new person.” They represent the two common frames of mind among the young
generation. After graduating from high school most of the young adults go to
college and some of them move to a new city for college. Some of them can
accept, even need, this radical change in their life but some of them can be
afraid of such a change. So, the characters and the events in this comic are
very true to life. Also, in the Stranger in Paradise, we saw a young adult girl,
Francine, who has a high school trauma and is afraid of getting dumped by her
boyfriends. She makes a connection between them dumping her and her letting
them “into her pants”.  Her boyfriend at the beginning of the comics, Freddie, is
a young adult male depicted as an exaggerated, almost caricaturized as a sex-
hungry, a bit foolish, and easy to trick male type of the era. And Katchoo is the
best friend of Francine, who is actually gay and loves Francine in secret. These
characters are also coming from real life which we can encounter such stories
everywhere. So, these particular comics give teenagers who’ve felt like this
within their life a chance to feel connected and understood thanks to those
characters. They can see that they are not the only ones who feel like that and
since the comics medium is popular among teenagers, it can be one of the
benefits of comics, particularly those ones. 
The comics medium has some aspects which make the medium both an
easy-to-read and a difficult-to-read medium. Reading comics is sometimes
easier than reading other written materials like novels because it contains
visuals that may ease the job of the reader. Especially the younger generations
may benefit from this a lot. Also, it does not contain lots of crowded words and
the younger generation may again prefer reading such materials than long-paged
hard-to-read books. But reading comics also can be harder than other mediums.
Because it also has a visual aspect, it contains lots of details. Sometimes the
messages or the meanings of the images in these details are not given directly
and the reader should analyze the pictures and reveal the meaning by
him/herself. 
Both of the comics were constructed in a simple way in terms of comics
structure. They were drawn in black and white. In Ghost World, shading was
given as color blue. But in the Strangers in Paradise issues, black lines create
the shading in some panels, but there are not many shadings used in that comics.
Both of them have a clean, cartoony drawing style. When we look at the
drawings in Ghost World, they are cartoony but not surreal. All the scenes can
be encountered in real life also. The sound effects were not widely used and
when they were used, they were placed into the panels in a simple way with
simple fonts. The “click” effect on page 9 and “clap clap” effect on page 10 are
some of the examples of this. Nevertheless, we don’t see many sound effects in
most of the stories. In contrast, in the Stranger in Paradise, the sound effects
were very widely used and in most of the panels, they were used very creatively.
On page 10 of the 1st issue, Francine shuts the door very hard and the “SLAM!”
effect of the door shut also looks violent. The letters are huge and the bubble
which the effect placed in bursts. On page 25 of the same issue, we saw the
“zip” effect when Francine unzips her skirt, “fwap” effect when she throws the
skirt to Freddie, “aaaaagh” effect when Freddie screams, “ka-plat” effect when
Francine’s bra hits Freddie’s face. They were both on the same page, but they
were drawn in different styles or different colors (some are black, some are
white). Terry Moore drew all of the sound effects advertently; like all of them
are unique art pieces itself. And also, in contrast to Ghost World, the scenes
were drawn exaggeratedly. The events happening in the story can be
encountered in real life but not in the way it is seen in this comic. For example,
the arrival of the policemen on page 11 of the 3 rd issue was drawn in a very
exaggerated way. We can also see another exaggeratedly drawing scene in the
middle panel of page 18, 3rd issue.
The speech bubbles in the Ghost World are very usual.  All of the speech
bubbles are identical, and they are in the normal, rounded form. But in
Strangers in Paradise, the shape of the speech bubble changes with the
emotions of its owner. Also, the font and the size of the letters change.
Especially if the owner of the bubble is angry, it can be seen clearly in the
bubble. On the last page of the 1st issue, we saw that the Katchoo’s speech
bubble was melting while he was screaming Freddie’s name.
Another point which is remarkable in Strangers in Paradise is that there
are some full-page panels, almost like a poster, which also has the artist’s
signature at the corner. Page 19 of the 1 st issue, page 15 of the 2nd issue, page 10
of the 3rd issue can be some of the examples.
In Ghost World, the word-image relationship is on the words’ side. We
cannot understand the story completely without the dialogs. Dialogs cover a
significant part of the comics. In contrast, in Strangers in Paradise, images are
more important than words most of the time. For example, there is a sequence
in the 1st issue, which is from pages 14 to 16. There are no words but only
pictures, still the readers can follow the story just by looking at the pictures. 
 
As a conclusion, both comics played their role both as a cultural mirror
and a functional medium for feeding the avalanche that is 3 rd wave feminism or
the existence of queer people in society. The shortcomings may be the failure
to lead the reader to a better world view instead of giving the current
atmosphere’s caricature but the question is, does it even have that purpose as
an art form to start with?

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