Awakening Volume 1

The once peaceful city of Park Falls has been tainted by a series of gruesome murders and missing persons. Cynthia Ford, known as the town crazy, finds retired police detective Derrick Peters and relates to him her belief about what's going on in town. Her explanation - Zombies! Unable to ignore Cynthia's information, though not sharing her beliefs, Derrick and others in the town explore the mystery as weeks turn to months and the death toll rises. Follow the first half of Park Falls' year-long struggle for answers in this collected edition of the first five issues of the ASP existential horror series.

From Booklist

Although graphic novels featuring marauding zombies aren’t in short supply, this nightmarish tale from newcomers Tapalansky and Alex Eckman-Lawn takes the genre to a new level of artistry. When an epidemic of grisly murders afflicts the normally sedate city of Park Falls, retired police detective Derrick Peters is sent by an unnamed source to investigate. Despite tooth marks around the victims’ wounds, a pronouncement by one of the city’s eccentrics that zombies are responsible only arouses Peters’ skepticism. After a little digging, Peters’ main suspects instead become the former employees of a recently closed pharmaceutical operation, where a novel treatment for Alzheimer’s was being tested. Yet as the body count rises, and Peters starts shooting ravenous killers on sight, the true cause of the outbreak becomes more and more elusive. Eckman-Law’s avant-garde illustrations embody a hybrid of mixed media, including altered photographs, blurred sketches, and Post-it notes. The end result is montage of unsettling imagery that will haunt readers’ dreams for days. --Carl Hays

About the Author

Nick Tapalansky writes some comics you should totally read, including A Radical Shift of Gravity, Awakening, and Cast No Shadow, a fall 2017 Junior Library Guild selection. His work has also been included in the award-winning Popgun and Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard anthologies. He currently lives in New York with his wife and daughter.nicktapalansky.comAlex Eckman-Lawn is a Philadelphia born illustrator who lives in the gutter and sleeps in the sewer. His work has appeared in comic books, on album covers, book covers, T-shirts, music videos, and posters. He is currently hard at work trying to burn his name into the ground and pull the sun out of the sky.Alex's work appears in the following comics: Awakening, Popgun Volume 4 ("Rusted: Faded Signal"), Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard ("Leviathan"), The Graphic Canon Vol.1 ("Forgive Us Our Trespasses"), and the Eisner Award winning Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream. He is working on an all ages adventure book called Samantha Loring and the Impossible World right now. Alex has also exhibited work at SCOPE Miami Beach, Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Arch Enemy Arts, Art Dept., Gallery 1988, Crane Arts Ice Box, Bottleneck Gallery, and more.

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