I've been a fan since fairly early on in Terry Moore's first major comic series Strangers in Paradise. There Moore explored the lives of Francine and Katchoo, and their friend David, in a complicated love triangle set against a thriller-type story of political infiltration and shadowy organizations. But that's not this.
Neither is Echo, Moore's second series. In Echo, he took a turn to the SF side of life and followed photographer Julie Martin as she became entangled in a mystery surrounding a new kind of battle suit, one which bonds to her, despite the fact that the government wants it back.So what is Rachel Rising? It's Terry Moore's third self published series, and this time he's raising the dead.
It's not spoiling anything to tell you that Rachel Beck, the titular character, is introduced in the series as a corpse rising from the ground. She doesn't realize she's dead, or really know what's happened to her (and neither do we), all she feels is an overwhelming need to get home.
As she begins to realize not everything is right in her world, home doesn't offer any answers. She can't remember what happened the nigh before when she went out with her best friend Jet. She goes out into town and is told she isn't Rachel by one of her neighbors. And her aunt, who works in the morgue, thinks she's dead and just a hallucination.
Add to the mix a mysterious woman who appears atop buildings looking down at Rachel with a devilish smile, a little girl who has gotten herself in a lot of trouble, and a growing body count, Rachel starts to realize her life is not the same. Starting with the fact that she shouldn't have one because she's not breathing.During the story Rachel, her aunt Johnny and Jet are trying to figure out what happened to her as she begins seeing things no one else can. Other pieces of the puzzle are given to the reader, but they only deepen the mystery and ask more questions (and answer few). Things come to a head, or rather a crash, as the car they're in rams into a truck and another death occurs. But in Rachel's world, that's doesn't stop you from getting up.
After reading the first six issues I am completely hooked. I was hooked on the first, really. The opening story arc is complete with issue six, and a collection called Shadow of Death is already available.
I suppose the highest compliment I can give it is the fact that I pick up the monthly issues as they come out, as opposed to waiting for the trade collections. I haven't regularly collected a monthly comic for more than a decade, but I'm enjoying the heck out of this one and don't want to wait and don't mind the expense.
Terry Moore is a man who has managed to do what few artists can, not get stuck in one genre, or one series. He has produced two amazing series so far, and Rachel's Rising has now been added to that list.
Rachel Rising is © Terry Moore
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