Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants: Possibilist Ecologies in ...

Bingham 104
McCloud, art is inextricably linked to learning and self-development. He describes three
main functions art performs: as providing “exercise for minds and bodies not receiving
outside stimulus” (Understanding 167, panel 1) as a game would, as providing “an outlet
for emotional imbalances” (ibid. panel 2) or giving materiality to ideas, and “as
discovery, as the pursuit of truth, as exploration” (ibid. panel 5).
Though comics have condescendingly been called art with an asterisk, or objects
which lack the rarity or skill associated with their finer counterparts, they are nevertheless
artworks and are valuable precisely because of their expansive outreach. The form's low
production cost and broad distribution make it the perfect medium for stimulating
widespread discussion and transmitting messages with political import. Especially in the
case of serially released comics like Saga of the Swamp Thing, the mass reproduction of
their content and their continued introduction to large audiences illustrate the magnitude
of their status as effective educational tools. In 1984, the same year Moore's debut as the
series' writer hit the stands, he was quoted saying: “I don't want to get into justifying
comics as art. That's just semantics. It is art, but it's not gallery art. It's cheaply available
to a large number of people” (Lawley & Whitaker 34). Using the popularity of a series as
an indicator for closer inspection of its content, comics can convey multiple layers of
historical information. As objects which enable ideas to be shared, comics can eventually
become immortalized or fade into forgotten artifacts through continued interaction,
preservation, or lack thereof. Because comics place matters of concern which are
typically removed from popular conversation or considered to be taboo, like violence or
bodily experimentation, and write these topics into an object of frequent economic
consumption, the otherwise unaddressed social content becomes more visible and