By: Terry More (writer, artist, letters)
The Story: Rachel & Jet try to save her Aunt Johnny.
Review (with minor SPOILERS): This was one of those issues that made me feel a little silly for writing monthly reviews. The apt comparison would be reviewing a 5 minute snippet of a movie – or – reviewing the action of a TV show between commercial breaks. The point is that a story like Rachel Rising will eventually be reflected upon as an entirety. Whether its final run is 30 issues or 100 issues, there will be a defined ending and we’ll consider it as a whole– we’ll even read it as a whole. Most people that return to the series in the future to read it, won’t be bothered with these somewhat arbitrary breaks between issues.
That entire preamble is a long-winded way of saying that this issue is just doing work. After all the big revelations and clarifications of the last two issues, RR kinda needed to return to just pushing the story along, and that’s what this issue does.
We needed to see what happens to Aunt Johnny now that her body is dead and her soul is trapped in her dog. I guess the most interesting thing about this extended scene is that Rachel and Jet call in the creepy old town doctor for help. Remember, this guy is keeping his wife’s mummified body in his kitchen! And even this creepy old doctor gets weirded out by what is going on. Kinda funny… How are they going to get the soul back out of the dog? I bet they’re going to kill that poor dog…
Speaking of killing dogs, we also check in on Zoe and see her have a nasty encounter with a guard dog and his redneck owner. This scene showed what an excellent comic this is (even when the events themselves aren’t epic). We see Zoe get attacked by the dog and to fend the dog off, she pushes a toilet plunger in his mouth. The dog gets the plunger lodged in his throat and starts to asphyxiate. So, Zoe has to decide whether to just let the dog die on the floor – or – she has to help the dog. Remember: The dog was just trying to kill her. Also let’s not forget, Zoe showed no compunctions about killing that goat (sheep?) a few months ago. She had slit its throat like it was no big deal. Seeing the dog’s sad eyes begging for help and Zoe finally helping the dog out (“Don’t make me sorry for doing this.”) was pretty cool. Especially when a few minutes later she is coldly killing the dogs’ owner… Even killers like dogs I guess.
The art in RR still blows me away. The little bits of emotion really come through. Whether it is the old doctor regretting that he hasn’t been able to reverse death while he thinks of his mummified wife or the choking dog begging for help, Terry Moore is able to accomplish a lot without saying a word. I know I’ve commented on it before with this series, but it really shows the power of a writer/artist. Moore just knows what things he can communicate effective with art alone and what actions need some help from the script. I know there are writer + artist teams where the writer does a pretty good job of trusting the artist, but they can’t ever approach what Moore does. The other thing that amazes me about RR is how incredible detailed all these panels are. Even the opening scene which just shows the doctor driving through the snow to get to Rachel and Jet is amazing. I mean, these are kinda non-event panels: nothing really major is happening. Still, Moore has probably drawn 200 snowflakes in each panel. Remember, this isn’t a colored comic where Moore can just use a digital brush and white digital “paint” and just start tapping away on his panel: Dot, dot, dot, dot… These snowflakes are all jagged little pen/ink snowflakes. What amazingly tedious work! When I see things like this, I’m amazed that Moore never says, “Screw it! 100 snowflakes will just have to be enough.” I wonder if he’s ever been late to a social engagement because he had to draw more snowflakes. Remember, it has been snowing for the entire series. I bet Moore never draws another snowflake EVER after RR ends.
Conclusion: A very high quality issue even if there are no major events.
Grade: B
-Dean Stell