Besides I, Vampire and Justice League Dark coming as part of this week’s DC Comics New 52 haul (I’ll have reviews of those live soon), there were a couple of very notable horror/supernatural titles that his stands this week at comic shops all over.Terry Moore, the visionary graphic novelist behind not only the sci-fi adventure Echo but the crime/romance epic Strangers in Paradise, released Rachel Rising #2 this week. His third ongoing series began back in July but ships every six weeks to accomodate Moore’s elaborate and family-run production and distribution. An interview with Moore about the second issue will be forthcoming here at ComicBook.com, but suffice it to say this issue really upped the ante.Rachel Rising #1 was a tense and clever, beautifully-rendered comic if a little slow. Rachel Rising #2 has no such problem, certainly, although the events seem to be getting stranger and more inexplicable. Rather than focusing on Rachel as a single character, as was done in the first issue, #2 introduces us to various denizens of the town of Manson and really fulfills the promise that Moore made on the Panel Discussions podcast about Rachel Rising being a little bit like Twin Peaks.The pace is picked up along with the repercussions; the mysterious, apparently-supernatural woman who stood atop the bluff at Rachel’s resurrection in the first issue appears again, this time with a deadly fallout for someone who appears at first glance to be fairly innocent–or at least not guilty enough to justify what happens. Meanwhile, Rachel turns to her aunt for help in finding her attacker, only to find that nobody, even her own family, really seems to believe that she’s really Rachel. By the end of the issue you’re left with a lot more questions than answers, but the excitement is palpable and the book reads very fast. More is happening here than in an arc of most mainstream superhero books, but Moore’s audience is small and rabid so he’s less prone to resetting the board every few months. I’d get on board with this one sooner than later, before you miss a lot of strong storytelling.
