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

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sheltered from or not exposed to in other educational forums. Besides these advantages,
this direct link between the medium and its anticipated audience opens up the capacity for
creators to experiment with various techniques. Comics can appeal to large numbers of
people because of their ability to present aspects of especially complex concepts whose
accurate presentation hinges upon layers of information. Moore explains the appeal of
the form: “It allows for layers of ambiguity and meaning, for multitrackings of narrative
that other media can't approximate. When a writer has recourse to pictures as a form of
narrative, it frees the text for other things” (Erickson Bookforum 28). Understandably,
when basic information regarding setting or action can be supplied through image,
language can be aimed at achieving more specific goals. Pairing combinations of these
narrative elements could convey more information than either could alone.
Literary critic Link Yaco identifies Moore as a Post-Modernist whose work aims
to use the medium to perform deconstructive moves which reveal connection between
seemingly divided forces. Implicitly tied to this goal is a prompt for the reading public to
face challenges which stress the ever pressing questions of the validity and value of
particular viewpoints and actions. When describing how he perceived Moore's artistry,
Yaco writes: “In short, he PLAYS with the form. But a sense of play is not childish—it
is the basis for any serious intellectual endeavor. And, in point of fact, the purpose of
play behavior is not aimless activity, but exploration of an environment. That is how we
learn” (250-251). This type of play is structured through these strategies: the placement
of surreal comics characters within realistic settings, the blending of styles reminiscent of
early cartoons alongside those indicative of contemporary realism, and the juxtaposition
of the classical against the abstract (Yaco 250). These moves prompt readers to consider