The Waking

Four police detectives investigate two seemingly random murders with suspicious scenes. Once they delve into the cases, they realize the murderers may actually be avenging their own deaths. As the night draws on, the police scramble to figure out where the zombies are coming from and how to stop them.

Raven Gregory presents a fresh take on the much-overdone zombie genre. Instead of being mindless, unstoppable brain-eaters, The Waking's zombies are purpose-driven, and die once they've avenged themselves. The crux of the story centers around the source of the resurrections and why all this is happening.

While Drujiniu's pencils aren't spectacular examples of well-done anatomy, I will give him credit for making everyone look different and not recycling faces like a lot of other artists do. The storytelling is above average, only getting hard to follow in some of the action pages. Still, he creates good effects with shadows and conveys the scenes with a good hand. Roberts's colors seem a bit too bright throughout most of the book, but are quite competent.

Still, it's definitely worth reading, especially if you're as tired of zombies as I am.

Available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million.

Title: The Waking
Author: Raven Gregory
Artists: Vic Drujiniu and Mark Roberts
Year: 2010
Pages: 124