As anyone who follows any of my comic book ramblings knows, I am a nut for Strangers in Paradise. I had all the softcover trade paperbacks and am now selling them to replace them with the hardcovers. That is how much I loved that series. And while I did enjoy Echo, I always felt that I didn’t enjoy it more simply because it wasn’t SiP. So when Terry Moore announced his new series, Rachel Rising, I was determined to go in with an open mind and really appreciate Moore’s work in a non-Strangers in Paradise setting. Well, it must be working because I am totally in love with this book.

While SiP was a slice of life, love story type of book, Rachel Rising is straight up horror, and horror done really, really well. The book follows Rachel as she has somehow returned from the dead after being strangled to death and left in a shallow grave. While her friends try to deal with this, a mystery woman no one can see is making a little girl do all kinds of horrible things. And it only gets creepier from there. Issue 6 begins to bring some of the various plot threads together but then has a last page that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

I know, disturbing, right? Who knew Terry Moore was so good at writing horror comics? The plot of Rachel Rising is a multi-layered masterpiece that will have you guessing from page to page, issue to issue.

Then you have Moore’s artwork, which is simply gorgeous. It seems like his storytelling ability has been taken up a notch as the art has a different feeling here than on his other two books. The pacing is much more deliberate and the panels seem to have more room to breathe, almost like he is really taking his time and letting the plot build at it’s own pace.

There is literally nothing on the stands like Rachel Rising. And when you think that Terry Moore still self-published all his work, it really makes you appreciate what he has been able to accomplish. So support creator owned work and go read this book; you will be amazed how good it is.