HOPE, LOSS, AND INTERDEPENDENCE OF THE WAKE FAMILY

Wake the dead inner cover

In the spooky original comic novel, Wake the Dead by Steven McGee, readers meet a trio of siblings living a life only few can imagine. One built on necromancy; a ritual used in raising the dead. Whereas necromancy in literature usually suggests either cold ambition or creepy villainy, Steven instead presents a picture of family perseverance, emotional toughness, and fragile hope. In a dark universe filled with human and mystical dangers, the Wake siblings' finest magic is not merely bringing the dead back to life but also being a source of strength to each other in times of difficulties and challenges.

Wake The Dead issue III

Wake The Dead Issue II

Wake The Dead follows the path of two sisters and their younger brother, bound not only by flesh and blood but by a wild, unwavering desire to reclaim their father's body, though not sure where it could be. Driven into the deadly business of necromancy to make a living, the siblings must survive a series of dangers from a religious sect with opposing ideologies who try to end their practice (known as the purists), to banshees that signal death rather than salvation. Yet amidst this darkness, the Wake family’s dependence on each other shines as a rare and resilient light.

Wake The Dead issue I

Following their story is a chilling question: what keeps them moving forward? Is it the hope of being reunited with their father’s body, or the ignorance of its whereabouts that will not grant them rest? Steven McGee reflects this emotional doubt throughout the story, so that readers are exposed to not only gruesome combat and grisly rituals, but scenes of silent tenderness. The siblings brawl, scheme, and argue, but their bond is their strongest defense. Their necromantic abilities are secondary to their ability to trust, to lean on each other, when the weight of their grief threatens to eat them up.

Wake the Dead Issue VII

Wake the Dead Issue I

Wake the Dead Issue I

Stylistically, Steven blends black humor with chilly suspense so that even as the stakes are dangerous, humor and human absurdity are present. His graphical comic welcomes readers to a world where the absurdity of life and death is mirrored in the absurdity of holding onto family in a disintegrating world. In Wake the Dead, the necromancy of the Wake siblings is a metaphor for the emotional resurrection we all attempt after a tragic loss.

Wake The Dead is not just a tale of graveyards and ghouls. It is a lesson in survival not  of the fittest, but of the most bonded. Steven McGee shows us that in the face of unstoppable decay, hope and misery have a tendency to drive the same road. It is only by reaching back for each other that the Wake family can push on through the darkness.

Wake the dead Issue IV

Written by: Andrea Kpolugbo