The Whatdead: Terry Moore on Rachel Rising #5

Earlier this month, the fifth issue of Rachel Rising hit the stands, capping a pretty big month [...]

Earlier this month, the fifth issue of Rachel Rising hit the stands, capping a pretty big month for Terry Moore, who recently announced that he will be taking his work to ComiXology, beginning on February 22. His first-ever digital day-and-date release will be Rachel Rising #6, which will hit on March 7. We spoke to Terry about the choice to go digital, and the direction of the story with this month's issue. So the last time around, we talked digital and between then and now, you decided to take the plunge. Was that e-mail you posted to the blog really the straw that broke the camel's back? Terry Moore: It was just one of many letters saying the same thing: for a variety of reasons, we can't get your books out here. Not everybody lives near a store. Not everybody is direct market savvy. So I'm going to provide a comics shop finder on my home page and start releasing digital versions. I just have to in this day and age; it's time to adapt or fade away. When can we expect to see that come to fruition in terms of Strangers in Paradise and Rachel Rising being made available on ComiXology?

TM: Rachel will be first. Issues 1-5 will debut on comiXology Feb. 22. Issue 6 will make it's global debut in shops and online March 7. That will be my first same-day-digital-release. Strangers In Paradise will take a number of weeks to prepare. It's just a MASSIVE amount of material to prep. You mentioned those two specifically--is Echo getting no digital love for a while? TM: We love Echo, but when push comes to shove, the other two took earlier priority. Echo will have her turn. How do you talk a retailer--who is already hesitant about picking up a smaller book like this--into giving it a try when they know it's available digitally? Or is the easy availability of back issues actually a plus? TM: They won't pick it up unless it's a proven seller. The more action i can get on the scene, aka popularity, the better for the retailer. I look at digital as adding another store. It's just a store. The more the better. Is it fun to write a character like Aunt Johnny, who really hardly misses a beat and takes all the weird in stride? TM: It is. I have friends like Johnny and I adore them. You need a stable person in your life, especially, if you're eccentric... or dead, and especially if you're both at the same time. She reminds me a bit of David, who at times faced some pretty awful, bizarre and confusing circumstances and just kept moving forward. Do you think it's important, when you're dealing with heightened drama, to have someone there for whom it seems like a day's work? TM: Yeah, when in crisis it's the stable people in your life that you lean on. And they're there for you, and you love them for it, right? That's Johnny. You know, in this issue we see a somewhat less grave (no pun intended) side of Rachel. She has a handful of facial features and expressions that hearken to Katchoo, but she's visually very different. Is that difficult to do in a black-and-white comic or is it just kind of second nature to you since that's what you work in? TM: Hmm, I guess I do that on the fly. I try to feel the character as an individual, then look for those visual quirks that make them unique when I draw. you know, all my women look similar to me, which is typical, isn't it? Think of the women of Bruce Timm, Adam Hughes, Amanda Connor... it's just how you draw. So you look for little things that set the characters apart. I always try to remember that Rachel and Katchoo and Julie of Echo may have to stand side by side someday... be sure you can tell them apart! Certainly story-wise Rachel's plot takes a bit of a sharp turn here (assuming the good doctor is right). Is Johnny surprised to hear that, or just surprised that he said it so bluntly? TM: Johnny is a realist having a mind-blowing experience. She's my Spock, so to speak, so I think she's taking in data and analyzing it. She doesn't believe what the doctor says, she would have to see PROOF. In those two middle pages, where Rachel's family and then Zoe are eating, there's a very similar layout. It isn't identical, but they're very similar and the panel of Rachel and the panel of Zoe are nearly identical. Was that an intentional way of drawing a parallel? TM: Yeah, they're both at the same point, where a normal function like eating isn't happening because you're in crisis. The world is not safe enough to sit and eat. That's a scary feeling. Would you eat in the middle of a bombing attack? Feels like that, without the noise. It really is almost a literal parallel because halfway through the issue, we go from following Rachel exclusively to following Zoe exclusively. TM: Two paths that you know are about to collide. The Boyles aren't exactly who they seemed when introduced--is there anyone in Manson you can take at face value? TM: Aunt Johhny? But she has her closet of secrets, too, I'm sure. We'll see. It's very hard to get a bead on Zoe--her motivations, whether she's a "good" or "bad" character and all that.Will you be exploring her character in a little more depth? TM: Yes, she's a keeper! That little girl creeps me out. I've been drawing her for years in comic strips. Now she's hit the big time of comic books, I want to know more about her.

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