REVIEW: Awakening #1 (Archaia)

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Awakening, like all zombie stories, starts the same way. Someone notices that something isn’t right and  they either ignore it or try to do something about it. They tell someone who’s skeptical and then, suddenly, it’s undeniable.

However, in Awakening there’s no suddenly. The build is slow and magnified by the artwork. It’s hard to tell what you’re seeing, just as it’s hard to tell what’s really happening in the city of Park Falls.

The art is some beautiful hybrid between sketching and collage. At first I thought it was messy, but then I realized it was like a good score or well dome lighting in a movie.

My inability to fully see detail in Awakening enhanced my experience of the story. Much like the artwork in 30 Days of Night.

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But the artwork isn’t Awakening’s only selling point. The ground felt familiar but not over done.

The story doesn’t jump straight from confusion to panic. The only person (aside from the post-omnipotent narrator) who believes the increase in murders in Park Falls is due to anything aside from bad days is a crazy ex-scientist who runs around in a surgical mask…

There’s room for this type of character because of the slow build and the the fact that the rest of the world isn’t yet in on the new world order. There’s no prepping or fighting.

It’s all suspicion and finger pointing.

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The detectives are trying to solve the murders, the crazy lady is trying to convince our protagonist she’s a reliable source and our protagonist just wants to go about his day like the sky was secure.

Park Falls calls in a specialist and there might be a little less skepticism going around.

The first issue of Awakening is free on ComiXology. Subsequent issues are are $1.99.

[rating:4/5]

SPAWN goes with you without covering you in necroplasm!

Image Comics/TMP just announced that the SPAWN universe is going digital with the release of five titles on ComiXology.com.

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Image Comics and Todd McFarlane Productions (TMP) have announced the digital release of five TMP titles on comiXology. CURSE OF THE SPAWN, HAUNT VOLUME 4, HELLSPAWN: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION, SAM AND TWITCH: THE WRITER, and SPAWN: THE UNDEAD (as well as the collected edition) are all available for purchase now on the digital comics platform, and more titles will be released weekly in the coming months.

While reading about all sorts of alien and supernatural creatures is vital to your survival, carrying around all these books just isn’t practical—unless you go digital!

I’m most excited about CURSE OF THE SPAWN. Why? Because it’s set in a futuristic world in the throes of apocalypse, when Evil stands at the threshold of victory.

I’ve been a fan of digital comics for a while now. It’d be nice if there was a bit more options, but luckily ComiXology prices competitively as they’re still competing with stores and sentimentality. But once you realize the power of portability and having books, comics, writing drafts, movies and more all in a purse-sized viewer you’ll never survive without it.

So, if you have or plan to have an eReader, start your collection off on the right foot.

Checkout all five newly digital SPAWN series:

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CURSE OF THE SPAWN

HAUNT VOLUME FOUR – Continues the saga of the Kilgore brothers — one of them living, one of them dead, both of them united as the superhero Haunt

HELLSPAWNre-defined McFarlane’s SPAWN mythos with stories by Brian Michael Bendis and Steve Niles (CHIN MUSIC), drawn by Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith

SAM AND TWITCH: THE WRITER – The SPAWN universe’s favorite flat-foots, detectives Sam Burke and Twitch Williams, take on a serial killer with a literary bent as fear and snow alike descend on the city.

SPAWN: THE UNDEADfocuses on the HellSpawn once known as Al Simmons, with a self-contained story about the individuals who encounter him in the SPAWN world of urban horror in each issue.

Coming Soon:

SPAWN: GODSLAYER one-shot, available on July 10

SPAWN: THE DARK AGES, which will roll out new issues weekly starting on July 10.

Check out the Image/TMP section on ComiXology.com for all your SPAWN needs.

 

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The New Post-Apocalypse Category on comiXology

I’m a fan of comiXology. I like the convince and selection and sales.

Sure you don’t own your comics but when you’re a packrat like I am, that’s not really a con.

So all this is to say, comiXology now has some new categories to help find comics you’re interested in. Among these categories is Post-Apocalypse, which features our beloved Jericho, the ever amazing Tank Girl, and Zombies vs. Robots.

The selection is a bit meager right now, but hopefully it’ll expand now that people realize the world will keep turning and they should keep producing new things.

In the face of an apocalypse, though not a Mayan one, learning to live with less is essential. I was doing my Holiday shopping and obviously wanted to pick up a few things for myself when I came across a sale at Newbury Comics: Buy two graphic novels get a third free.

I was geeked… until I started thinking about what I was going to do with three more books. I’d read them, of course. But then what? Where would I put them? Were any of them so beautiful that I wanted them around just to look at?

So amazing that I wanted them on hand just to share with curious friends?

Meh. Not really.

I like being able to flip through them in the store but the novelty of paper has worn off for me. I collect First Issues and some arcs  but for sheer consumption?

Digital.

Also, everything is cheaper on the internet.