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Bingham 42 Its main narrative arc is one of survival; it is framed by the quest of protagonist, Sheriff Rick Grimes, to find his wife and seven year old son in the midst of zombie apocalypse. Though not the first to imagine a world in which human bodies are transformed into cannibalistic organisms lacking conscious awareness, the work is unique and presently relevant for a number of reasons. First, by making the protagonist an embodiment of law responsible for maintaining order and exercising authority on a personal level, the creators have poised their audience at a unique vantage point to contemplate how communities are created and maintained by individuals. Rules are enforced through attention to and adjustment of individual behaviors. Furthermore, the desire to preserve civilization even in the wake of its destruction raises questions about how we distinguish between those who belong to a particular affiliation or to a group of outsiders. The artists' representations conjure associations of religious damnation; they transform people into self-destructive agents for the eradication of their own species. Looking at the ways in which this space encompasses a reality of total war, the prevailing attitudes felt by surviving characters are skeptical and defeated. Having to acknowledge the possibility that a person could transform from an individual into an entity focused upon killing eerily echoes concerns felt by American citizens after the terrorist attacks of September 11 th , 2001. In The Walking Dead, the creators represent the body in such a way that viewers are forced to confront their inevitable corporal decomposition and fear of vulnerability. Cavarero addresses the need to speak about these concerns and distinguish them from earlier encounters with and associations to violence: A neologism assumes that there exists something new, different, recent. But what is so new about carnage and torture, after all? … A simple answer might be that, at first sight and in certain circumstances anyway, what is new is the way in which the massacre is now perpetrated: a body that blows itself up in order to rip other
Bingham 43 bodies to pieces. (Cavarero 29) Even though the zombies in Kirkman's work don't blow themselves up, or even consciously choose to attack the living bodies around them, they are bodies which literally rip other bodies to pieces. Suicide bombers are also unsuspected. Similarly, there is no way of telling who might become a zombie. Beyond that though, they call up associations of other disturbing images of disfigurement and panic. Relating to these metamorphosed bodies is impossible though. Instead we must turn to the actions of surviving characters, who are only a breath away from losing their consciousness as well. Through this connection, viewers are prompted to acknowledge that morality and identity are inseparably linked to circumstance. My interest in the narrative stems from a curiosity regarding how the fantasies of violence it depicts are related to a fear of the military-industrial complex and overdependence upon federally consolidated power. The social critique embedded in The Walking Dead is an unsettling portrayal of the illusion of safety. The various government agencies and other institutions of the world supported through elections, wealth, and power were made up of individuals just as vulnerable to the epidemic and ensuing crisis as those who were part of an anxious poor and middle class. Stressing the existence of an unrealized search for intervention among surviving characters reveals a population unaccustomed to confronting violence firsthand. Tracing the ways these characters must use the force of violence themselves and react toward it after living through a world unarguably permeated by its existence is an interesting exercise in exploring the composition of the American psyche. Such considerations can be useful in determining whether identity is at all stable or entirely alterable based upon changing situations. This raises questions about the sanctity of law and other social contracts. Moreover, this
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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 and 26: Bingham 25 sponsorship. He designed
Page 27 and 28: Bingham 27 Charles Moulton. Marston
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: Bingham 41 and dismember other bodi
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
Page 73 and 74: Bingham 73
Page 75 and 76: Bingham 74 Works Cited Berger, Arth
Page 77 and 78: Bingham 76 APPENDIX A Fig. 1. Openi
Page 79 and 80: Bingham 78 Fig. 7. Fig. 8.
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Bingham 92 Fig. 35. Fig. 36.
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Fig. 38. Bingham 94
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Fig. 41. Bingham 96
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Bingham 98 Fig. 43. Fig. 44.
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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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