Terry Moore on Rachel Rising #14 and the Echo Connection

We've already briefly discussed this week's issue of Rachel Rising, in which Terry Moore started to do a little world-building in between the character moments. With a connection to Echo (which has its own connections to Strangers in Paradise), the Terryverse is now well and truly integrated into this series, even if we don't yet know what it means. To help us work it all out, we called in Terry Moore himself, the writer and artist of the series. A reminder that these interviews are meant to be read as "commentary tracks" to the issue. They're SPOILER-HEAVY and should be read after you've read the book. If you don't have the book, you can go get one now and read along with us. ComicBook.com: Where do you get the quotes from, or do you add one that makes sense after the story? Oppenheimer and Einstein and David Crosby is quite a combo. Terry Moore: Welcome to my head. That stuff just leaks out of my brain. Too much reading. ComicBook.com: The phone call was very cinematic, in terms of moving the "camera" around to vary the angles and giving Johnny a bit to do with the hanger and everything. Is it important to you, in these slower, more quiet issues, that there's a sense of movement and energy? Terry Moore: Well I see them as moving so i try to portray that. It's also a way of getting you to look at what i want you to look at. Like Rachel's expression when Aunt Johnny tells her about Earl's confession. ComicBook.com: There's quite a bit of hemming and hawing going on with Earl here. Is it safe to say he's coming to terms with what he believes he has to do at this point? Terry Moore: Earl is fighting a battle we can't see. He's still moving around an issue that hasn't settled yet, but it takes a surprising turn in the very next issue. ComicBook.com: And I continue to adore Aunt Johnny's candor. Terry Moore: Yeah, middle-aged women in practical shoes are not to messed with. ComicBook.com: I can't help but feel like Shelly could be a Parker girl. She's far too smiley and confounding when talking about the mob. Is that just wishful thinking on my part? I love the Terryverse. Terry Moore: I'm not sure Reuben's a worthy enough target for a Parker Girl, but I loved Shelly the minute I started drawing her. That's one of the joys of making your own stories: any given day you can wake up and create a new character to entertain you. You hear lonely kids say that all the time. It does get lonely in an art studio. =sniff= ComicBook.com: Just over six months ago, you told a reader that you didn't plan on revealing what was in Julie's box. Now...well, is that the same box?! Terry Moore: Looks just like it, doesn't it? Huh.

I want to confess to you that I've been so curious about that box for so long that it is your contact icon; when I get an e-mail from Abstract Studio, that's what I see. Terry Moore: That's funny. ComicBook.com: Rachel is already starting to remember some things, though, right? I mean, even though she said she didn't remember anything, she was staring down that tree remembering "herself" burying the box. Terry Moore: She's missing the key to unlocking the past. If she gets it the floodgates will open and Lilith will have a big problem. ComicBook.com:  That preacher is a little too...on the nose..for Manson. And too cheery. I sense trouble. Terry Moore: Consider the recent events and you will remember who that preacher is. Then the meaning of his words will hit you a different way. ComicBook.com:  Can I add that the solicitation for this issue (and the cover for that matter) don't really sync up all that well with what we eventually saw. Was there a bit of a pacing change for this month? Terry Moore: Never in 20 years has my solicitation copy matched the comics because when it comes to floppies, I'm soliciting a comic that hasn't even been written yet. They ask me to describe a book 5 months before I've written it, so I make something up to put in the catalog. Then, much much later, after many ages pass, when the time comes, I actually write and draw the issue in question. It's different with the TPBs and books, of course, because we know the source material. But the floppies are made right at the last possible deadline, so if issue 15 is due in February, I'm making it in January. Ask me to solicit issue #88 tomorrow and I will have to lie through my teeth just to get the issue on the order form. I mean, I know it's going to be the same page count and price, we're just talking about the story, so I ask the readers to trust me on that. It's the same way South Park works. The show is made the week it comes out. It's a crazy intense way to work, but the work has energy.