Echo #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeEcho #1 marks Terry Moore's pivot from the relationship drama of Strangers in Paradise into science-fiction thriller territory, introducing protagonist Julie Martin and establishing what fans would later call the 'Terryverse' — a shared universe that eventually encompassed Rachel Rising, Motor Girl, and the crossover series Five Years. The issue is the debut of the Phi-alloy concept, a piece of military technology whose narrative consequences ripple across all of Moore's subsequent creator-owned work. As a solo-produced, self-published debut by an Eisner Award-winning cartoonist, it demonstrated that genre-spanning ambition could thrive in the Direct Market completely outside the major publishers. The series launched from this single issue went on to win the Harvey Award for Best New Series, cementing Echo's place as a landmark of the 2000s independent comics scene.
In Echo #1, writer and artist Terry Moore launches a striking, grounded mystery centered on Annie, a test pilot whose experimental flight suit catastrophically fails during a routine trial. When the suit explodes into fragments, one of the larger pieces latches onto Julie’s skin—and refuses to come off—setting off a tense, intimate exploration of connection and transformation. The story’s stark visuals and quiet dread are brought to life by Terry Moore’s distinctive art, both interior and on the cover.
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Terry Moore publicly announced the series on his blog on November 19, 2007, revealing the title and the March 5, 2008 street date — less than four months before it shipped. The announcement came while Moore was simultaneously producing work-for-hire material for Marvel, including Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane and Runaways, making the self-published debut a deliberate return to his Abstract Studio roots after the decade-long conclusion of Strangers in Paradise in 2007. Moore served as sole writer, artist, and publisher, continuing the model he had followed since launching Abstract Studio in the early 1990s under the influence of fellow self-publishers Dave Sim and Jeff Smith.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Julie Martin, a desert photographer who becomes bonded to an experimental military alloy known as the Beta Suit after witnessing its explosion in the sky.
- First appearance of Annie Trotter, the Beta Suit's original pilot whose death in the opening scene sets the entire series in motion and whose personality becomes imprinted within the alloy itself.
- Published March 5, 2008 by Abstract Studio; the first printing featured a distinctive silver foil-accented cover not reproduced on any subsequent printings.
- Sole creator: Terry Moore (writer and artist), maintaining the fully self-published model he established with Strangers in Paradise.
- Issue #1 launches a 30-issue series that concluded in June 2011, collected across six trade paperbacks (Moon Lake through The Last Day) and later in a single complete-edition volume (ISBN 1892597489).
- The series — debuting with this issue — won the Harvey Award for Best New Series.
- Echo is set in the same shared universe as Strangers in Paradise, Rachel Rising, and Motor Girl; Strangers in Paradise characters Tambi Baker and Casey Femur appear during the series run, and Julie Martin later crosses over into the line-wide event series Five Years (2019).
- Moore described the series premise as a story about 'a woman living in today's America who is dealing with a sudden unbelievable change to her daily life,' a deliberate genre departure from the interpersonal drama of his previous work.
Cast · 3 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Terry Moore's Echo #1 (2008), Echo #1 (2009)
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