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

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Bingham 26 also produced Popular Comics in 1936 and The Comics in the following year (ibid). Unlike these publications which featured reprints, during this period Wheeler-Nicholson's company released More Fun and New Comics which contained all new material. Only one other firm, called Comics Magazine Company, was competing with National Allied Publications' strategy of issuing material which had not already been released. Run by William Cook and John Mahon, Comics Magazine Company revolutionized the production of comics' content by procuring material from the factory like comic art shop run by Harry A. Chesler (ibid). Here artists and writers worked for weekly salaries and used assembly-line style methods of piece by piece collaboration to turn out stories cheaply and quickly. Even with this cost efficient business model, National Allied Publications struggled financially. In an effort to combat these fiscal setbacks Wheeler- Nicholson forged a partnership with his printer, Harry Donenfeld, to whom he was in debt. Through this merger, the company became Detective Comics, Inc. Its first issue was released with the cover date of March 1937 (Harvey, The Art 18). As the first singularly themed comic book, the publication inspired Wheeler-Nicholson to pursue a similar venture called Action Comics. Ultimately this title would achieve monumental success by publishing Shuster and Siegel's story, Superman, in 1938; but, this was not before Donenfeld forced Wheeler-Nicholson out of DC's ranks (ibid). Alternately, Gaines' innovative sales strategies propelled him onto the fast track to success. Working with Jack Liebowitz and Harry Donenfield on another of his ventures, Gaines began publishing new material for All-American Publications in 1938. While Gaines worked for All-American, the company was responsible for releasing titles like William Moulton Marston's Wonder Woman in 1942, written under the pseudonym
Bingham 27 Charles Moulton. Marston hoped his heroine would enable women to realize their full potential as the country's men were being drafted into war (Tabachnick 10-11). All- American was not the only company releasing superhero narratives, though. The period between when the first issue of Superman was released in 1938 until the mid 1950s is colloquially referred to as “The Golden Age of Comics.” During this period other seminal and timeless heroes made their debut and catapulted to stardom. DC Comics, for instance, published Bob Kane and Bill Finger's Batman in 1939. Following Superman's debut in DC's first issue of Action Comics, Timely Comics introduced the Human Torch in its first issue of Marvel Comics. Timely Comics, which eventually would change its name to match the success of its bestselling title, also issued Jack Kirby and Joe Simon's patriotic hero Captain America the year following the first appearances of Batman and the Human Torch. In many ways, the escalation of political conflict and onset of war fueled and encouraged the development and sale of new comic narratives featuring superheroes. According to Harvey, “During the war, 90 percent of the DC titles had been superheroes, after the war, that percentage declined to two-thirds; then by the end of the decade, to about 50 percent” (The Art 40). The dichotomous struggle between the Axis and Allied powers warranted explanation for young readers (Inge 103). Also, comics were an enjoyable diversion for deployed servicemen which, “helped them while away the idle periods of unpredictable duration that customarily intervened between short spurts of feverish activity” (Harvey, The Art 16). Apart from the advantageous nature of the medium to support this type of interrupted reading, the content of the works could also boost morale. As Americans waged war against totalitarian powers and fascist nations responsible for committing unthinkable atrocities, they may have yearned to see
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Page 3 and 4: Bingham 3 I owe an extreme debt of
Page 5 and 6: Bingham 5 Introduction My project e
Page 7 and 8: Bingham 7 personal growth through t
Page 9 and 10: Bingham 9 beliefs. Seeing a possibl
Page 11 and 12: Bingham 11 zombie exceeds death as
Page 13 and 14: Bingham 13 the validity of singular
Page 15 and 16: Bingham 15 Chapter I: The History o
Page 17 and 18: Bingham 17 Swamp Thing. According t
Page 19 and 20: Bingham 19 instructional profession
Page 21 and 22: Bingham 21 Another artist who worke
Page 23 and 24: Bingham 23 action into panels (Cohn
Page 25: Bingham 25 sponsorship. He designed
Page 29 and 30: Bingham 29 Frederick Wertham prompt
Page 31 and 32: Bingham 31 “graphic novel” was
Page 33 and 34: Bingham 33 what is or isn't a graph
Page 35 and 36: Bingham 35 Works Cited Benton, Mike
Page 37 and 38: Bingham 37 Chapter II: Transfusion
Page 39 and 40: Bingham 39 conflict or war. This ex
Page 41 and 42: Bingham 41 and dismember other bodi
Page 43 and 44: Bingham 43 bodies to pieces. (Cavar
Page 45 and 46: Bingham 45 thus creating an affecti
Page 47 and 48: Bingham 47 margins. Unlike the four
Page 49 and 50: Bingham 49 implicates the role of o
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Page 53 and 54: Bingham 53 Amy (Figure 10 & 11). Th
Page 55 and 56: Bingham 55 being who has done nothi
Page 57 and 58: Bingham 57 transgressions, this ima
Page 59 and 60: Bingham 59 Returning to the full pa
Page 61 and 62: Bingham 61 order” (200). The prem
Page 63 and 64: Bingham 63 possession, selling, ste
Page 65 and 66: Bingham 65 with yourself? Not me. I
Page 67 and 68: Bingham 67 immediate proximity of t
Page 69 and 70: Bingham 69 experience, or the human
Page 71 and 72: Bingham 71 sentences Thomas to hang
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Page 75 and 76: 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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Fig. 38. Bingham 94
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Fig. 41. Bingham 96
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Bingham 101 Chapter III: Speaking o
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Bingham 103 preserved, yet not enti
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Bingham 105 increasingly more discu
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Bingham 107 Wrightson only drew the
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Bingham 109 by the inexorable progr
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Bingham 111 appeared. Though the tw
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Bingham 113 General Avery Carlton S
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Bingham 115 dismembered body which
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Bingham 117 sheltered from or not e
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Bingham 119 authority. This subtle,
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Bingham 121 the center of the page
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Bingham 123 affect. Apart from this
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Bingham 125 acts of fictional chara
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Bingham 127 resemblance, their comp
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Bingham 129 experience. The creator
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Bingham 131 justified. What follows
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Bingham 133 present to witness it t
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Bingham 135 If we read each charact
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Bingham 137 able to issue an urgent
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1 According to comics historian Rob
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Bingham 140 - Interview by David Ro
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