Rachel Rising: "Like Mother and Child" - Talking With Terry Moore About #15

Remember that these columns are commentary tracks meant as supplements to enhance the reading experience. If you haven't picked up a copy of Rachel Rising #15 yet, grab it and read along!

It's been three weeks since Terry Moore's Rachel Rising #15 hit the stands on ComiXology and while we generally don't wait that long to present our commentaries, we felt it was best to wait until comic book stores had the issue on the stands last week before we sent our questions along to Moore. What happened with that, anyway? Well, read on to find out that, as well as something that sounds like a huge clue about the relationship between two key characters... ComicBook.com: First off, you're the featured guest in the first week of the SuperMOOC this week. How's that going for you? Terry Moore: I'm excited about it. Christina Blanch is amazing. SuperMOOC is her idea and she's made it happen with the support of her team. It's just so cool that the schools are embracing comics as modern lit and helping students connect to great stories.

ComicBook.com: It's interesting--I'm in the class and have been watching some of the discussions. Is it odd to have your eariest, roughest work on SiP scrutinized so closely all this time later? I see all these people speculating about what happens next and I'm like, "How do you not know? It's STRANGERS IN PARADISE!" Moore: I'm used to it. My life is one new reader after another walking up to me and asking, "What's Strangers In Paradise about?" I still don't know how to answer that question, by the way. ComicBook.com: Alright, onto Rachel... What happened with distribution this month? You were two weeks earlier on ComiXology than on paper! Moore: Yeah, and that's not a good thing. You do NOT want to release books before the retailers! It was just an unfortunate misunderstanding with Diamond over the global release date. I'm so sorry the digital came out first. We work very hard to hold back digital until all the stores are ready with hard copies. It's very important to stay in sync with your brick and mortar business partners. ComicBook.com: You've changed the color palette again! I'm guessing the white here doesn't denote purity... Moore: We're on the 3 palette: purples, burgundy and gray. The white is always allowed, it just was used more predominantly in this graphic. White in this series, as with the snow, designates death.

ComicBook.com: The second time around, Jet seems a lot less zen about the nudity... Moore: The second time is different for her. The first time was PTS. The second time, she is more acclimated to the situation. The boundaries begin to come back. ComicBook.com: ...She does seem to be a little bit more like herself, though. Should we all celebrate? Moore: If you like. ComicBook.com: Should we read anything into the idea that for all that time, Earl was there to keep her from slipping away--and then as soon as he stopped touching her, she woke up? Moore: Like mother and child? There's some sort of bond there, still in the process of definition. ComicBook.com: I notice your use of shadows and heavier shading and negative space a lto more in this title--even in the scenes that are relatively "bright" like the outdoor cemetery. Is that just me looking at the art differently due to the content or is your approach to the actual pencils different on Rachel than it has been in the past? Moore: I am using more blacks, even to the point of page borders. I'm also using a rougher inking line to promote a subliminal sense of edginess and unease. I will do anything I can with the visuals to promote a feeling of anxiousness. When you're trying to communicate a horror story without the aid of a soundtrack, you have to use every visual trick you can find. ComicBook.com: Speaking of that scene--I buy digital most weeks, and it just doesn't flow the same in some of the sequences with the "beat" panels. The Guided View is really not a selling point when part of the page is just "here's a panel of snow." Are you still really writing for the printed page? Moore: I make my comics for the printed page. How you view them digitally is beyond my control, so I don't worry about it. On the flight back from Wondercon, I watched a couple reading e-comics on a plane. One was reading full page only, the other was reading panel reveals, swiping back and forth to try and get the sequence in their head. It didn't seem to be a better way.

ComicBook.com: Wait a second--her mother died on 9/11? That seems...unlikely to be random. Moore: You're the 2nd person to notice that. ComicBook.com: Is Rachel eating dirt an intentional recurring motif? Because it seems to happen a lot. Moore: Did she eat dirt in 15? She got her face in the dirt, for sure, but she was spitting it out, trying to get her arm deeper and deeper into the ground. Corpses and dirt seem to go together. ComicBook.com: I really think the moment when Rachel is successful in her quest is...probably the most disturbing moment I've ever read in one of your books. You've said in the past that you wanted to take some of the genuinely uncomfortable, spooky moments from horror films and try to apply them to comics, and I think that one counts. Was that what you were going for there?

Moore: Yes. I try to write scenes you're not used to seeing. If I can craft a scene that stays with you after you close the book, I've done my job. If the scene makes you think, I'm happy. It's not easy to entertain you with an upsetting scene in a comic book. ComicBook.com: And was it just a spacing issue or is there another reason her word balloons are underground in that panel? Moore: That's the direction she was talking. That's where your attention needed to be. ComicBook.com: The next moment, when she pulls the hand away--there's fear on that page, but in th emoment it looks like rage. Or am I just misreading her revulsion? Moore: Fear and rage are often hard to tell apart. ComicBook.com: Have we seen Carol before? I don't remember seeing Johnny's partner. Moore: You have though. Remember when Aunt Johnny was first in the hospital, Rachel suggested calling Carol because she would want to know and come help? The scene suggested Johnny and Carol's relationship had hit a bump, but in times of need, Carol would want to be there. She's been by Johnny's side since issue 7. ComicBook.com: And should we worry about her safety? So far, not many of Rachel's loved ones have made out well. Moore: No one is safe in Manson. ComicBook.com: You've got a fan in Robert Kirkman, but let me tell you--you're giving him a run for the money in just flat-out gross this week. There's some psychological terror mixed in with the ickiness of the thing with Rachel's mother, but the last third of this comic are basically just a mountain of yuck. Where do you get this stuff? Moore: My friend Tom tells me I'm f---ed up. (laugh) I just imagine the worst and write it down. I read once that people didn't really talk to Hitchcock at dinner parties. Maybe this is why. ComicBook.com: Jet's hangups about nudity fade fast--even in the snow!--when a mob of rats are involved. Moore: She's a grown woman. Plus, I think most people, when faced with a house full of swarming rats, would run outside without stopping to dress and make a cup of coffee first. ComicBook.com: Is there any special significance to the rats, or are they just a good way to get the water commissioner under enough scrutiny that his hard drive would be searched? Moore: That poor guy is just another casualty, easily set-up and destroyed by somebody who's actually aiming at a target over his head. I put that in there as another horrifying scene: that anybody can be destroyed by what somebody else puts on their computer. ComicBook.com: Manoman, Zoe's a fun kid. I want her to have a playdate with mine in a few years. You think she'll still be ten? Moore: Now that Malus has left the building, Zoe is on the aging track again. She's going to make a delightful, surly teenager.