Awakening #1
Archaia Studios press
Writer: Nick Tapalansky
Artist: Alex Eckman-Lawn
Let’s face it, you can’t swing a dead cat these days without smacking into a zombie or something zombie related. Ever since the remake of Dawn of the Dead the undead have been infesting nearly every form of media like…well, like zombies. Awakening is yet another hat tossed into the zombie ring. As much as I’d love to give you a concise, yet detailed, wrap up of this first issue, anyone even remotely familiar with standard zombie story protocols can already predict what happens in this first issue. Still, for those unversed in zombie lore, here’s a brief wrap up: In a sleepy, secluded town, a strange rash of attacks and disappearances have been occurring in which victims are reportedly being eaten by other people. Awakening follows the life and times of Derek Peters, a former police officer attempting to make heads or tails of these ominous, bizarre incidents.
As much as I love a good zombie story, Nick Tapalansky isn’t really doing anything unique with this first issue of Awakening. While I’ll try not to be too hard on Tapalansky, considering this is only the first issue of the story and there’s plenty of space to expand things in the future, I’d be remiss if I said that the predictability of this opening issue wasn’t a little disappointing. With every new incarnation of the zombie genre I keep looking for something new to be added to the mythos, but, so far, such an addition hasn’t been implied by Tapalansky. Still, he’s got nine more issues to make his mark on the old zombie narrative. In basic storytelling terms, the author does a good enough job. His dialogue is efficient, but his internal narration tends to drift over into the realm of melodrama and detective noire.
On pencils, Alex Eckman-Lawn tries to create a dark, abstract world in which to introduce our tale of teeth and blood and undead cannibalism. His artwork is very active and sharp, extremely stylized with obvious attempts at brooding and foreboding. As much as I love brooding and foreboding, Eckman-Lawn seems to just be trying too hard at times. In many ways this series is looking like an eager, talented art student’s resume. While I’m all for eyeballing an up-and-comers resume, his style doesn’t quite fit the story. Too often the panels become muddled by over-activity and a kinetic energy that feels more forced than natural. But, still, I’m interested to see where Eckman-Lawn’s artistic instincts take us.
Overall: 3 out of 5. An average zombie beginning.
