Rachel Rising
A strangled woman claws out of a shallow grave into a Massachusetts town haunted by witches and demons. Terry Moore's bone-chilling 42-issue horror epic.
đź“– Abstract Studio • Started 2011
Rachel Beck wakes up buried in a shallow grave, rope burns around her neck and no memory of how she got there. She claws her way out, hitches home to the quiet New England town of Manson, Massachusetts — and finds that everyone, even her own family, is looking at her like a ghost. Because Rachel is supposed to be dead. She is dead. And something in the dark brought her back.
The story
What begins as a murder mystery spirals into something far more ancient and terrible. Rachel, her mortician Aunt Johnny, and her fiercely loyal friend Jet begin investigating her death only to stumble into a 300-year-old conspiracy: a witch named Lilith, burned during Manson’s founding, has returned to resurrect her coven and summon the demon Malus — who plans to use the town as ground zero for the End Times. Bodies pile up. A ten-year-old girl becomes a vessel for a demon. And Rachel learns that the past she can’t remember isn’t just her own, but a history of witchcraft written in blood.
Moore crafts the horror with a master’s restraint — unsettling stillness, long silences, and a creeping dread that settles into your bones. His clean black-and-white art renders even the most grotesque moments with a strange, tragic beauty.
Publication history and acclaim
The first issue of Rachel Rising hit shelves on August 3, 2011, and immediately sold out at the distributor level. Terry Moore self-published all 42 issues through Abstract Studio until the planned conclusion in May 2016, alongside the hardcover omnibus edition. The series earned Moore Harvey Awards for Best Lettering (2014) and Best Cartoonist (2015) and won acclaim from critics who praised it as a modern horror classic — ComicsAlliance called it “one of the best horror comics on the stands.” Fans famously rallied around the #SaveRachelRising hashtag when Moore floated cancellation in 2013. A television adaptation was announced in 2013, and Rachel, Jet, and the menacing Zoe all reappear in the Terryverse crossover Five Years, sharing a universe with Echo and Strangers in Paradise.
Perfect for fans of The Walking Dead’s human drama, Hereditary’s slow-burn dread, and horror that treats its characters as people rather than prey.
