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

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Bingham 30 eliminated the certification for the artistic portrayal of real events or treatment of complex issues. Such strict measures of control prohibiting the portrayal of classic monsters as well as criminal behavior reveal fears of the latent power associated with these motifs. Many contemporary graphic narratives including The Walking Dead capitalize upon the strength of these symbols and treat issues of morality which relate to fear from a standpoint of confrontation rather than avoidance. Long before Kirkman began writing, though, other creators laid a foundation for his success through deliberate rebellion against the CAA. As a response, the underground or alternative comix movement began in the 1960s. Most of the titles associated with comix dealt with risque or adult subject matter including sex, drugs, violence, radical political ideas, and/or other themes which would have been denied approval by the CAA. Flourishing in San Francisco, where the movement coincided with the growth of the burgeoning hippie counterculture, independent publishes like Rip Off Press and Kitchen Sink Press issued works that prompted thought about ideas and topics that were rarely discussed openly (Tabachnick 12). According to Dez Skinn, author of Comix: The Underground Revolution, the first underground comic was Frank Stack's 1964 compilation of his strip The Adventures of Jesus under the pseudonym Foolbert Sturgen (34). Other influential comix artists were Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Spain Rodriquez, and Trina Roberts (Tabachnick 12). Branching out from the strict constraints of the CAA, their thoughtful works began bringing political relationships, hierarchies of power, and social standings into question. This development changed the public's expectations of the medium and helped pave the way for the emergence of the graphic novel. It is accepted that the term
Bingham 31 “graphic novel” was coined with Will Eisner's 1978 work, A Contract With God (Tabachnick 13). Yet even this origin story is somewhat inaccurate. Eisner admitted he had used the term during a phone call with the president of Bantam Publishing in New York when trying to generate interest about his new illustrated project that targeted adults rather than children; he knew the man was familiar with his earlier work on The Spirit, which ran from 1939 til 1952. Eisner had left his own lucrative firm in order to have the opportunity to market a narrative to an older audience through the Sunday papers. Apparently Eisner's reputation and the novelty of the phrase got him a face to face meeting and the advice to seek out a smaller publisher: At the time, I thought I had invented the term, but I discovered later that some guy thought about it a few years before I used the term. He had never used it successfully and had never intended it the way I did, which was to develop what I believe was viable literature in this medium. (Eisner, 20 Feb. 2002) Eisner incorrectly refers to a number of individuals in the preceding statement. The first man Eisner wrongly discredits is Richard Kyle. Kyle first coined the term in 1964, “in the pages of the Comic Amateur Press Alliance's newsletter, Capa-Alpha #2” (Kaplan 14). Yet, when looking at Kyle's words in “The future of 'comics,'” it's clear he absolutely meant what Eisner claims to have thought up: I cannot help but feel that "comic book" and "comic book strip" are not only inappropriate and antiquated terms with which to describe these genuinely creative efforts and those of the even more fully realized productions which are bound to come, but are also terms which may easily prevent the early acceptance of the medium by the literary world. (Kyle, Wonderworld 2 pg.4) Eisner also claims success for an achievement that a number of others had already accomplished two years before A Contract With God. In 1976 multiple texts were published that claimed to be graphic novels directly on their title pages or dust-jackets. The front flap of Bloodstar, created by writer Robert E. Howard and artist Richard
Page 1 and 2: Walking Corpses & Conscious Plants:
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 and 26: Bingham 25 sponsorship. He designed
Page 27 and 28: Bingham 27 Charles Moulton. Marston
Page 29: Bingham 29 Frederick Wertham prompt
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
Page 51 and 52: Bingham 51 demonstrates that he is
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
Page 77 and 78: Bingham 76 APPENDIX A Fig. 1. Openi
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Bingham 80 Fig. 11. Fig. 12.
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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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