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

Bingham 116
have become manifest during the moment attention and logic have become absent.
Drawing inspiration from a number of sources including the original version of
the title, the creators deliberately and effectively link an overarching theme that marks the
search for knowledge through instances of physical disruption where bodies have become
subject to the exertion of outside forces. It's my belief that these moments of disturbance
or injury are designed to aid the development of consciousness, or self-awareness, within
readers. This issue opens with the narration of Dr. Jason Woodrue in the midst of
imagining the outcome of a violent death we can assume he caused. This entry into the
narrative seems appropriate for an example of the horror genre, especially one dealing
with Moore's goal of presenting difficult topics to his youthful readers. During an
interview conducted by The Comics Journal he commented, “There is violence in
everyday life, there is sexuality, often violent sexuality intruding into the child’s world,
and in my opinion, the only way that we can possibly help our children is to give them
the information that they need to deal with that” (Moore 6/13/2012). What safer space is
there to expose innocents to the existence of such potentially harmful forces and possible
evils than in the pages of a graphic narrative? Protective devices which dilute the
severity of material presented by revelation through the lens of fiction enables young
readers to contemplate issues which they might otherwise avoid or not know about. Also,
industry standards like the expectation to adhere to guidelines dictated by the Comics
Code helped enforce a standard which could give parents a general idea of what their
children were reading if those titles had received a seal of approval.
Furthermore, the dual presentation of information through image and language
helps to explain difficult concepts which many juvenile readers have been intentionally