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

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Bingham 134 the creature becomes tighter, the twenty-three letter A's signifying the creature's yells below also become larger and, we might speculate louder. These maroon letters harken back to the images of blood and Woodrue's eyes. They also differ from the textual captions on the rest of the page and exemplify a montage relationship of word/picture combination because they are physically incorporated with the images and are essential to conveying necessary information (McCloud, Understanding 154). Closure for these four panels is rather simple, but for the remaining three it is much more speculative. The focus on these remaining panels is upon the right hand: a body part whose image signifies moral and ethical implications. In the foreground of panel five, the Swamp Thing's right hand is slightly open with curved fingers. He looks ready to clasp it violently around Sunderland, whose position in the background with his back turned and both hands raised over his head suggests surrender and vulnerability. The sixth panel shows Sunderland's right hand cloaked in nearly pure black shadow against the bright red screen of his security system's control panel; since red has shared a connotation with evil and malevolence, especially in this issue, this image reinforces Woodrue's influence while doubly reinforces Sunderland's wrongdoing. The black shadow extending from his fingertips past his wrist stresses the sinister and corrupt nature of his work. Layered on top of this long panel, the seventh, and final on the page, shows the reverse angle of Sunderland's hand with his palm against impenetrable glass without a possibility of escape. On the next page, Swamp Thing completes the violent homicide readers have come to expect but in somewhat of an unconventional manner. Swamp Thing lifts Sunderland by his head, and appears to smother him by pressing him into his massive chest (Saga 34 panels 2-5). Death almost seems to come through an embrace.
Bingham 135 If we read each character as a representation of a particular viewpoint, Sunderland's death seems to symbolize the end of exploitative behavior with the emergence of a new type of consciousness. It is possible that the creature snapped the old man's neck in the process but the method is overshadowed by the act. According to Woodrue's final remarks, the “dying” (Saga 34, panel 6 & gutter below 7) is what ultimately matters and the details by which this killing is accomplished are less important than their outcome. When compared against Woodrue's passionate and emotive manner of storytelling which has characterized the issue, this determination seems doubtful. However, this contradiction could serve as another example suggesting layers of concealment or inherent hypocrisy of hierarchical relationships. The narrative wraps up with Swamp Thing simply leaving behind the deceased body of Sunderland while Woodrue concludes his soliloquy (Saga 35). Above Woodrue a series of three panels which are a near reversal of his rapid approach two pages before depict Swamp Thing's exit. As Swamp Thing's body takes up less space in each progressive panel, the focus upon Sunderland's face in the foreground becomes tighter. Closure is easy to perform in this moment along with the conclusion of Swamp Thing's vendetta. Woodrue's closing remarks which appear afterward seem to suggest otherwise though. On this last page, he is shown in three different positions. First he's shown from behind totally in shadow. Next, a right-side profile from the torso up where he is drinking wine with a raised glass and being covered partially by vegetation and crosshatched shadows. Overlapping this image is the caption: “For the moment I am content simply to think, and to plan...” (ibid.) In this instance, readers are pushed to realize that Sunderland's death is not an ultimate conclusion. Signifying the relative insignificance of
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Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants:
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Bingham 3 I owe an extreme debt of
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Bingham 5 Introduction My project e
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Bingham 7 personal growth through t
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Bingham 9 beliefs. Seeing a possibl
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Bingham 11 zombie exceeds death as
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Bingham 13 the validity of singular
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Bingham 15 Chapter I: The History o
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Bingham 17 Swamp Thing. According t
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Bingham 19 instructional profession
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Bingham 21 Another artist who worke
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Bingham 23 action into panels (Cohn
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Bingham 25 sponsorship. He designed
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Bingham 27 Charles Moulton. Marston
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Bingham 29 Frederick Wertham prompt
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Bingham 31 “graphic novel” was
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Bingham 33 what is or isn't a graph
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Bingham 35 Works Cited Benton, Mike
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Bingham 37 Chapter II: Transfusion
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Bingham 39 conflict or war. This ex
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Bingham 41 and dismember other bodi
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Bingham 43 bodies to pieces. (Cavar
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Bingham 45 thus creating an affecti
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Bingham 47 margins. Unlike the four
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Bingham 49 implicates the role of o
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Bingham 51 demonstrates that he is
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Bingham 53 Amy (Figure 10 & 11). Th
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Bingham 55 being who has done nothi
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Bingham 57 transgressions, this ima
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Bingham 59 Returning to the full pa
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Bingham 61 order” (200). The prem
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Bingham 63 possession, selling, ste
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Bingham 65 with yourself? Not me. I
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Bingham 67 immediate proximity of t
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Bingham 69 experience, or the human
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Bingham 71 sentences Thomas to hang
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Bingham 73
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Bingham 74 Works Cited Berger, Arth
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Bingham 76 APPENDIX A Fig. 1. Openi
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Bingham 78 Fig. 7. Fig. 8.
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Bingham 80 Fig. 11. Fig. 12.
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