Rather than "wake up", aren't the words at the corners referring to the development of the story in the 4koma? the last one made me remember of sayonara zetsubou sensei

at first i was thinking wake as in "beginning", but ended translating the kanji literally, the other lost me though

This is definitely a reference to Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei. That's where the fifth "darkness" stage was invented, and only Itoshiki Nozomu could have thought it up.