7 Days of Halloween Review: Day 4

Title:	Rachel Rising Vol 1
Contributors:	Terry Moore
Publisher:	Abstract Studio
Issue #:	1
Year:	2011
Pages:	153 Pages
Age Rating:	13+ (Adult Themes)
Story Grade:	B+
Art Grade:	B+

Rachel Rising Vol 1, by Abstract Studio, is supernatural murder mystery that blends elements of style from Alfred Hitchcock and Stephen King. The story is about the Resurrection of Rachel, a formerly average girl from an average town in America, who was murdered. This fantastic story is both satisfying and disappointing for a long time horror fan like myself. It's satisfying in the originality, depth, complexity and character development and disappointing in that it feels rushed, compressed and covers a lot of ground while still feeling like it's didn't cover enough. But don't let that disappointment get the best of you, this is still a worthwhile read.

The book starts when Rachel wakes up at sunrise in 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 looks to find out what happened.

Reading this series in volumes is truly the way to go. If I had started by simply reading issue one and waiting a month, I likely wouldn't have read issue two. It is simply the way the book is written. It's a slow cooking process before the reader begins caring about Rachel. The caring begins developing in issue two but doesn't fully develop until near the end of issue three. Issue one of the volume is mostly just Rachel waking up in a grave, walking out of the woods, hitching a ride from a stranger who apparently has no problem picking up a stranger on the side of the highway, who also happens to look like she just rose from a grave. The first issue finishes with Rachel getting home, taking a shower, laying in bed, recapping the events before her death, and finally learning just how long she was buried.

As a reader you don't learn a lot about Rachel as a person in the first issue and therefore you end up not caring which would make it difficult to purchase issue two. But, by buying the volume, issue two is already in the reader's hand and as the reader gets into issue two things begin to open up. By issue number three, the reader is hooked.

One of the most intriguing parts of the book is that the first issue starts with a quote from Plato: "Death is not the worst thing that can happen to you." Each issue in the volume starts with a quote like this, but this quote, above all others, sets the mood for what is to come in the books that follow.

The one thing that left me frustrated as a reader, and not necessarily in a bad way, is the cliff hanger ending of the volume. I definitely wanted more and was sorely disappointed to be left hanging on like that.

Dammit.

Terry Moore has done an excellent job in this story. He develops deep rich characters, Stephen King style, while telling a supernatural story that isn't over the top, like many of Stephen King's similar stories can be. Since Moore did all of the writing and the artwork, his voice in the story is fluid in not just words, but in the visuals as well. The artwork is simple line-type black and white in style, but it is in this simplicity that his message shines. For example, there is some gore involved in some of the scenes, but the gore is minimized by the use of black and white, rather than using color, a style popularized by Hitchcock in Psycho.

All in all I have to grade Rachel Rising Vol 1 a solid B+. The art is simple, yet thorough and the story, while slow to start, left me wanting more at the end. Rachel Rising is definitely worth more than a cursory glance.