Awakening #4-5
Written by Nick Tapalansky
Artwork by Alex Eckman-Lawn
Back Covers by Mark Holmes, Kaitlin Terentz
Lettering by Thomas Mauer
Archaia Studios Press
Cover price: $3.50; Available Now

Awakenings is the continuing tale of a mystifying zombie infestation that is afflicting the small town of Park Falls. In this fourth issue, Dr. Daniel Howe has exhausted almost all possibilities and is still no closer to finding out what exactly is going on, and ex-cop Derrick makes peace with the quasi-insane Cynthia, but something (or someone) nasty from his past may be coming back to haunt him.

Let me say here that I just don’t get the whole zombie thing. I just never found zombies all that scary and/or interesting, and this, unfortunately, is a story about zombies. But I’m willing to look beyond that here for one reason and one reason alone: the multimedia art stylings of Alex Eckman-Lawn. His work in Awakenings really takes this simple zombie/mystery story to another level and makes it worth reading. Eckman-Lawn finds a way to make almost every panel interesting and a work of art unto itself. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, he will have a more challenging narrative to work with.

All in all, this is a solid book where the artwork greatly outstrips the unsophisticated, by-the-numbers, “zombified” plotline.

Issue five of Awakenings centers around ex-cop (now a private investigator) Derrick and the horrific events that led him to leave the Park Falls police force. It seems that Derrick’s old partner, the aptly (and conveniently) named Charlie Brute, is a mass murdering rapist who likes to wear Oni masks while performing his dirty deeds. Somehow, Charlie’s major personality defects seem to escape Derrick (I guess his detective skills are somewhat lacking…), but he manages to take him down when push comes to shove. And inexplicably, Charlie shows up at the end of the book to taunt Derrick. This happens after only five, short years have passed. I’m sorry, but this completely confounds me. There is a mention in issue four that the “judge tossed his (Charlie’s) case” but that’s a pretty big fucking stretch to make here. As it is depicted in this issue, Charlie is caught by Derrick with the blood of three victims on his hands and the gore-stained knife still on his person, which he then attacks Derrick (a cop) with. I’m not sure how much more evidence you would need to put this nutjob away for an extremely long time. And why suddenly, after five years have passed, would a judge randomly throw Charlie’s case out? I guess Park Falls doesn’t have a crack C.S.I. squad like they do in Vegas or Miami.

Again though, it’s Eckman-Lawn’s beautiful artwork and overall slick design of this book that really makes Awakenings worth reading. It is a visual treat that transcends the Swiss cheese narrative. One can only hope that the glaring plot holes uncovered in this issue are logically addressed in the coming installments.