Are You Reading Rachel Rising?

If not you should be.

Rachel Rising is the new series by indie comic artist Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise, Echo) it is a story of a woman named Rachel who wakes up one day in her own grave, what follows is her attempt to figure out what's going on, we then find out that her home town has many chilling secrets. I would love to tell more, but to discuss the plot at all is too inviting to spoilers. But lets just say this horror comic "has it" Horror comics have long been problematic because in a comic, as opposed to a film you only have one sense to work with, and as opposed to  a novel you don't have the luxury of Drawn out prose. Moore uses this limitation as the books strength, using mood and atmosphere as his agents of fright. murky shadows and deep texture, give the work an eerie moon lit feel, even in the daytime scenes. And a story about death and what may come after makes for a great read. It is the only comic that I have to get every month. The cartooning in Rachel Rising is everything that we've come to expect from Moore well drawn women, great expressiveness, and a stunning attention to detail. But I find that his work has been evolving in a much more fluid way, the expressiveness of line and texture being a bit of a departure from his style of the past. It's a bit looser and freer allowing the image to be read  quite well, in other words Terry Moore makes it look easy. It amazes me Rachel Rising makes Strangers in Paradise and Echo seem like "warm up" and I found both of those series' remarkable. So do yourself a favour and check out  Rachel Rising.

Image copyright 2011-12 Terry Moore