Awakening with Nick Tapalansky
by Michael Moreci
Nick Tapalansky's debut graphic novel, Awakening (released by Archaia in 2007), was a fresh take on the zombie genre. The book mixed atmospheric horror with P.I. noir and found a happy medium between mystery and terror. Buttressed by bold art from Alex Eckman-Lawn, the book received critical praise and commercial success.
This October, the conclusion to the zombie-noir-mystery will hit comic shops as a complete graphic novel (on October 20, to be specific, later in bookstores).
I spoke with Tapalansky about genre bending, late-night Miami boardwalk cruising, and why the undead simply won't go away.
Michael Moreci: The first volume of Awakening left quite a few unanswered threads (the last issue in particular raised some interesting questions, which I won't spoil here). What can we expect from the new volume, and the world of Awakening in general, moving forward?
Nick Tapalansky: Answers, of a sort. When we used to talk about the first volume, it was always with the disclaimer that it was a "zombie noir which may or may not involve zombies." By the end of that first book, and to be fair, probably much sooner than the end, we know that zombies or, at least something zombie-like, has appeared in Park Falls. Going into the second volume we start to get an idea that, yes, this is happening, and worse, time is running out. The cast spent the first few months of the story coming to grips with the truth that something strange has gripped the city, and now, as the pressure continues to escalate, we find our characters not only grappling with what's happening, but with violence of a different sort when folks in Park Falls start turning up murdered sans bite marks. Private dick Derrick Peters rejoins the PD to try and get some answers, both about the murders and the intentions of his ex-partner, Charlie Brute, who returned at the end of Volume One; attack survivor Sandra LaFayette is forced to confront her past in a way which leads her to her own conclusions about what's happening to the city, and the world; and Dr. Daniel Howe makes some dark decisions as he pursues his quest for a cause behind the "awakenings."
MM: How did you and Alex (Awakening artist) get paired together, and when did you know his very distinct style was what you were looking for?
NT: I was cruising the streets of Miami looking for some... Companionship... And there he was, his lipstick bright, his leg seductively kicked out. He looked comfortable against the streetlamp, like it had a place carved for his slender shoulder.
And I knew. He was the one.
MM: What drew you to bringing the two distinct elements found in Awakening--P.I. fiction and zombie horror--together?
NT: The attitude inherent in the detective genre was something which, coupled with defying your basic zombie tropes, gave the characters the tools necessary to investigate the topical mysteries in a somewhat unconventional way. It was also important that they have the time to come to grips with what's happening and, taken a step further, explore what it all means to each of them based on their lives, so changing up the rules of your typical zombie story was mandatory.
MM: Let's talk about comics in general, specifically genre-mashing. It seems that, happily, comics are one of the only visual mediums where you can take a number of different genres, toss them in a blender, and hit frappe. We've seen it with Warren Ellis, Jonathan Hickman, on and on down the line. Your own work mixes the detective genre with horror. Two-part question: What was your own approach in dealing with this, and why do you think comics, as a medium, is such fertile ground for creatively experimenting with genres?
NT: I think if you're writing what you want to write, things like this happen naturally. I wasn't too experienced with the detective genre when I set out to write this story and I think that was a big help--I was unencumbered by attachments to the genre and was able to take what worked for my cast and world and leave the rest behind. With the zombie genre I was on more familiar ground and made more intentional choices about changes because the overarching mystery is key to the book. Ergo, defying standard conventions in order to keep the cast, and readers, on their toes, was easier because I was intimately familiar with them.
Comics present a unique opportunity for creators to experiment in a medium without restrictions. If you can imagine it, there's an amazing illustrator like Alex out there who's just as excited as you are about your story and who's ready to bring it to life. You're not writing by committee in creator-owned comics the way you might be with a screenplay, or beholden to a budget. You've got a bit more freedom to present something unique which stands on its own merits without penalty for experimentation. In fact, in my experience, comic fans are some of the most experimental readers on the planet and are always excited to see a new spin on a familiar genre. That gives creators even more impetus to follow the story they want to tell and not feel forced to cater it to a particular genre.
MM: As a fellow zombie comics writer, one of the most unavoidable comparisons/references is The Walking Dead. On one hand, much of the "zombie boom" can be attributed to Kirkman's series; on the other hand, anything dealing with similar territory seems to have trouble escaping its long shadow. What is your experience like, creating zombie fiction post-TWD?
NT: Rule number one when creating any story: make sure you've got something to say that hasn't been said. Rule two (and I'm borrowing this from something Ron Marz tweeted the other day) is, simply, don't suck.
If you want to tell a zombie story, or a vampire story, or a story in any other genre which might be considered "saturated," be sure you're doing something unique and that you're doing it well. I think The Walking Dead is a great series, and it approached the genre in a new way--the neverending zombie story or, as Kirkman says in his foreword of the first volume, what happens after the credits roll. On the other hand, what followed TWD was a glut of zombie comics which were, essentially, template stories that didn't add a lot to the genre: a group of stereotyped survivors, run and gun, survive against the odds, betrayal from within, wash, rinse, repeat. It's not that they were done badly per se (although some were), but it had all been done already and been done well before so there wasn't too much of a reason to get into it.
What I set out to do was explore a number of internal and external conflicts, both individualized and societal, and in defying standard genre conventions I was able to do so. I know that Alex and I were able to present something different than the norm (rule 1) with this book, and we're marginally sure it doesn't suck (rule 2, we hope). How much it doesn't suck is up to the readers, but as a writer I knew that as of the end of the second volume, which is the conclusion of the story, I'd written something I'm really happy with and excited to have folks read.
MM: Speaking of the zombie genre, what is it, in your opinion, that is bringing about this resurgence? On one hand, zombie movies, comics, novels, etc. make for great escape fiction--zombies can be anywhere from chilling to bitingly (yes, pun intended) funny. But there are also the more serious elements--biological disaster, mindless hoards, things of that nature. So why zombies? Why now?
NT: I'd actually argue that there's no "now" about it. At this point, zombie popularity has been a fixture of the first decade of the 21st century, a resurgence which I think owes a lot to The Walking Dead, the remake of Dawn of the Dead, and 28 Days Later, all of which embodied the best of the "classic" zombie mythos and the forward thinking of new takes on the conventions of the genre. For the better part of the last 10 years, zombies have been a fixture of popular fiction, something which has in many ways hampered the genre due to oversaturation.
I think the big draw of zombie fiction is the human face on an overwhelming danger. Zombies, in the modern, post-Romero sense, aren't the monster in the closet, the hidden ghosts or ghouls that float in and out of view. Instead, zombies are almost always there and in your face (or, in the case of Awakening, lurking in the background when they finally step out into the open). They're undeniable and their existence isn't limited to an individual adversary but, instead, they tend to exist as a nigh-insurmountable mass.
Then, of course, there are all those questions as to the "why" of it all. In Awakening we have an ensemble cast who all weigh in, each with a different background and opinion regarding what's going on. Is it scientific in origin? Is it a preordained act of God? Is it something else entirely?
Zombies are surprisingly versatile, more so than a lot of the genre's offerings let on.
MM: Volume two completes the Awakening story--can you give any hints on what you have in the works?
NT: So many things! Alex and I have a short story, Rusted: Faded Signal, which was published in Popgun Volume 4 (Image Comics) back in February which is part of a larger series of shorts we're working on now. We've also got our next two books (at least) planned after we complete and collect the Rusted stories. Alex is a beast and, when you get your hands on some of his newer stuff in Awakening Vol 2
I've got a great book coming together right now with an incredibly talented artist, Paula Andrade, that we've already got a home for and should be able to talk more about in the next few months. It's a bit of existential adventure with a Lovecraftian flare and, when you, get a look at it, your jaws are gonna hit the floor. *I'm* getting more excited about it with every page and sketch and I thought I peaked when we started working on it.
I'm also working on a screenplay right now that I'm really excited about and can't wait to actually start talking about. It's early days right now but soon... Soon.
Find a 26-page preview of Volume Two here:
http://www.nicktapalansky.com/blog/comixography/awakening/awakening-volume-two/
Interviewer Bio
Michael Moreci / Writer
Website: www.michaelmoreci.com
Michael Moreci's debut graphic novel, Quarantined, will be released in 2011. His shorter comic work has appeared (or is forthcoming) in FutureQuake, Something Wicked, Accent UK's Victoriana anthology, and The Sleepless Phoenix Anthology. His freelance journalism has been published in Wired, the Huffington Post, Stop Smiling, North Shore magazine, In These Times, and Earth Island Journal. Michael currently lives in Chicago with his wife and dog. Contact him at michael.moreci (at) gmail.com.
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