A comiXologist Recommends:
Kate Kasenow recommends Rachel Rising #30
Let’s cut to the chase. Rachel Rising #30 dropped Wednesday and you should already be reading it.
The various works of Terry Moore (terrymooreart) have been nothing short of prolific, and while Rachel Rising may not be the adventurous romp of self-discovery that Strangers in Paradise is, it tells its own independent tale of empowerment and insight. In the first arc of the series we meet all of our major players: Rachel’s just come back from the dead, literally; Aunt Johnny is the local mortician; Jet, Rachel’s best friend, starts having a similar problem with staying deceased; Zoe is a ten-year-old with murder on the brain; the ancient witch, Lilith, seeks revenge upon the town of Manson; and Malus is a demon determined to summon the AntiChrist. Although it has all the ingredients of your typical horror story, Rachel Rising defies labels and gives readers plenty of wit and heart to balance out the gore.
Now, back to #30. Old villains are reappearing and the cast must once again reunite to overcome them, but Rachel is on a mission to find her own killer. Will she lose herself in the process?
As always, Moore’s art shines throughout the issue, bringing unique detail to both the natural landscapes and the gritty violence. What really intrigues me about the series though is the continued unparalleled quality of Moore’s hand-lettering. While most comics lettering today has become standardized, Moore continues to display his characters’ unique voices through the art of typography making his works a cut above your average series.
So what are you waiting for? Immerse yourself in Rachel Rising today!
[Pick up Rachel Rising #30 here!]
For fans of: Leading Ladies, horror, suspense, and the supernatural
Kate Kasenow is a comics artist from Indiana currently living in Manhattan. She works at ComiXology as a Lead Digital Editor and spends most of her spare time re-reading J. R. R. Tolkien.
Comics we're Thankful for:
Madeleine Lloyd-Davies is thankful for Strangers In Paradise by terrymooreart
When I was 13, I had the incredible fortune to be invited to San Diego Comic Con with a close friend and her family. I was a comics newbie and indiscriminately bought anything that was recommended to me (including Chicken Soup for Satan, a way-too-scary horror comic that I bought because of the funny title). By far the most important book I bought that weekend was the first volume of Strangers in Paradise.
This is the book that made me fall in love with comics all over again. When I was a kid, I would sit on the floor at CVS and read Archie comics (#TeamCherylBlossom). But I think people who grew up with friends and family who read and shared comic books can underestimate how hard it can be to get into them as a newcomer. I didn’t know where my local comic shop was. My attempts to play X-Men with boys on the playground were immediately shot down. And that was kind of…that, until SiP. As soon as I got home, I started trying to track down other graphic novels (I remember reading Castle Waiting, Alias, and slowly working my way over to collected editions of superhero novels like Astonishing X-Men).
But beyond pulling me into comics, SiP was really the first time I saw characters that I truly related to, in ANY medium. At age 13 I was coming to grips with the fact that I was chubby and bisexual (with a mullet, btw, #TeamMullet). At that time, I couldn’t have named a single chubby girl character OR bisexual character, let alone someone who was both (happily, I’ve since discovered plenty more great comics representation: try Love and Rockets: Locas or Wet Moon, for instance). To read a book with a woman who was chubby, who struggled with body image sometimes but was confident sometimes, who had people who thought she was beautiful AND people who made fun of her weight, whose sexual orientation was in flux—if you’ve grown up seeing a lot of people like you represented in media, you might not get how powerful that is. But I think a lot of people in this community are here for that very reason—something else that I am thankful for.
[Read Strangers In Paradise on comiXology]
Madeleine Lloyd-Davies is comiXology’s Production Director. She is very thankful to work in a company where she actually had to EMAIL TERRY MOORE!
Hey. Do you care about women? Do you care about comics? Do you care about women in comics? Yeah? Why aren’t you reading Rachel Rising?
Rachel Rising is by Terry Moore, who is most famous for Strangers in Paradise—a massive, decades-spanning work chronicling the long romance between two unlikely women. He is particularly celebrated for his ability to draw a variety of female body types, and in general, the female-dominated nature of his comics. Terry Moore’s women are brave, frightened, sassy, shy, angry, demure, and everything in between. They are, in short, characters afforded the respect we’re always clamoring for. Much of his work is explicitly feminist in nature as well—which brings me to Rachel Rising.
Rachel Rising is about a young woman who wakes up in a shallow grave. She’s dead, but….not. She goes on to discover that 300 years prior, her small Massachusetts town slaughtered hundreds of young girls in an effort to root out witches, and moreover, that she might have been one of them. Then Lilith—actual, biblical Lilith shows up. Without going into too much spoilery detail, Rachel Rising is a story about revenge, nonconformity, good and evil, witches, demons, and death. It’s creepy, stark, and really, really good.
It’s also in danger of ending, due to financial concerns. So check it out at your local comics shop, or buy it digitally through Comixology. Whatever you do, give it—and more female-dominated comics—a chance.
I was going to write a thing on Rachel Rising and how it’s my #LateNightReads pick of the day, but prynnette said it much better than I would have.
A new issue came out today, you can get it here.
Or you can start at the beginning with volume 1 for just $9.99 right here.
#SaveRachelRising
comiXolgy Unbound's Weekend #comicbinge
↳Rachel Rising by Terry Moore (terrymooreart)
Rachel wakes up at sunrise on a shallow grave in the woods and discovers the freshly murdered body in the dirt is her own. With events of the previous night a blur, Rachel seeks out her boyfriend Phillip. But Phillip has a new girl now and Rachel is beginning to suspect she rose from the grave for a reason– revenge!
#SaveRachelRising
comiXology Unbound’s 13 Days of Halloween!
Day 6 - Rachel Rising
Rachel wakes up at sunrise on a shallow grave in the woods and discovers the freshly murdered body in the dirt is her own. With events of the previous night a blur, Rachel seeks out her boyfriend Phillip. But Phillip has a new girl now and Rachel is beginning to suspect she rose from the grave for a reason– revenge!
This is a favorite around our office and you can snag the first issue for just 99¢!
