Must Read Comics: Terry Moore’s ‘Rachel Rising’

I certainly make it no secret I’m an unabashed fan of all things Terry Moore. While I absolutely adore Strangers in Paradise, and reread the entire series as least once a year, I thought Echo was a good tale but a bit of a letdown for me as it came hot on the heels of SiP. Not to say I was overly disappointed with Echo but just felt that series didn’t have the storytelling staying power of Moore’s opus featuring Katchoo, Francine, David and the rest of SiP’s cast of characters.

While I don’t claim to be any sort of expert (and try to leave most of the comic related posts to others) I can say I consider myself an open minded comic fan who doesn’t solely reside in a Marvel or DC camp – yes, there are plenty of folks out there who only read books from one of the big two. I think my eyes were opened back in 1983 when I picked up the initial issue of Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg; I was simply knocked out and my love of independent comics began. I’ll be turned on by any comic, regardless of publisher, as long as it’s a great story with good art. Character and story are kings in my book and art takes a bit of a back seat if I feel the tale is well told. That might sound a little strange seeing comics are mainly driven by art.

With today being International Women’s Day I thought I’d take some time to write about a current series which has an extremely solid cast of female characters: Abstract Studios’ Rachel Rising. Terry Moore is well known for creating wonderful characters and one of his main talents is presenting strong, identifiable women in his tales. Add to this he’s an utter master at rendering the female form makes my comment above regarding bad art completely moot.

I’ll stay mainly spoiler free here on out…

Twenty three issues in, Rachel Rising is the story of a young woman (the aforementioned title character Rachel Beck) who awakens in a shallow grave, sporting red eyes and a vicious ligature marks around her neck, missing memories of the last two days. Rachel finds her life (or could that be death?) will never be the same as she looks to learn not only what happened to herself but what’s behind the suddenly strange goings on in her hometown of Manson.

Manson is populated with plenty of memorable characters including Rachel’s aunt Johnny, best friend Jet, and a mysterious murderous little girl, Zoey. One of Moore’s strengths has always been creating stand out characters and Rachel Rising includes plenty of them. Even characters which make quick appearances (only to be dispatched rather quickly) leave an indelible mark on the tale.

Rachel Rising is a horror story and Moore’s talents as an artist and teller of tales are in complete sync here. Nearly every issue holds a chilling moment or three which leaves you counting the days until the newest issue hits stands. Even though there’s murder and horrific mayhem, Rachel Rising doesn’t have the overly heavy feel of other horror comics (ala The Walking Dead) because Moore instills a touch of humor and a lot of humanity. This doesn’t take away from the creepiness or real shocks but actually intensifies those moments. In fact even if you’re more into gruesome terror tales, Rachel Rising should be right up your alley even though .

Terry Moore’s comic has a ton going for it and has been optioned as a television project which we may see it on a network like AMC in the future. I’d be especially interested in not only seeing the series as it could appear on TV but also have Moore and his work exposed to new audiences like Robert Kirkman has due to the success of The Walking Dead.

Readers of TGG know I don’t recommend crap and I really look to provide honest and up front recommendations which I believe are worth a read, or watch, or play. I can’t give a big enough thumbs up for Rachel Rising and while it may not be everyone’s cup of tea (it is a horror comic after all and much of the violence takes place just off panel) anyone who enjoys a scary story, and isn’t shackled to only picking up Marvel or DC titles, really owes it to themselves to check out this comic.

Do yourself a favor and head over to Terry Moore’s website and get your hands on the first two trade paperbacks: The Shadow of Death and Fear No Malus. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts as soon as you finish those two you’ll be racing back to the website to order the rest of the issues in print. Or, more likely, running over to your FLCS to snag those issues because you won’t want to wait on a shipment to read more of the tale!

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Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...

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