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

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Bingham 48 complete. To its left are the two bigger circles intersecting like links of a chain. The small circle rightmost on the page has been cut off and appears only in part. Because violence not only affects perpetrators and victims but their families as well, the fourth circle could be said to represent this spillover. If this reading seems dubious, it's possible that shape represents an opening of closed communities by marking the opening of integral bodies; Rick's body, for example, dually signifies his own existence as well as that of law. Since the leftmost circle does not intersect any others in the opening panel, but is present in the second to last and final ones, it could depict how the location has been changed as a result of the standoff and spilled blood. Not only would this type of reading suggest that the violent event alters the space itself, but also those connected to it. So the earlier speculation that the shape may represent those connected, but not present during the event, also experiencing transformation as a result of its occurrence still holds weight. Furthermore, this impact extends to readers. In The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing, James Elkins argues that “drawings are a place to observe the exchange between seeing and blindness and to mediate on the ways that blindness threads its way through vision” (235). Accordingly the contemplation of an artwork can give viewers the chance to identify discontinuity in form and then translate that into a tool for finding it in other areas of life. Earlier, Elkins argues that sight is not objective but instead is influenced by an observer's location in his or her environment (Object 12). The blindness he hints at is an obstruction created by particular experiential subjectivity that causes individuals to be attached to some objects or sentiments while completely missing others. Rather than referencing discovery as an action completely attributable to the viewer, he
Bingham 49 implicates the role of one's surroundings as key to enabling one to make a discovery. From this perspective, looking is not only an active determination but a continually unfolding process that reshapes the viewer who has become more or less aware of the world he or she inhabits (Elkins, Object 35). Thus the result of seeing a particular object or image is not an immediate event with a distinguishable ending. Elkins describes this as an acidic affect: “An image is not a piece of data in an information system. It is a corrosive, something that has the potential to tunnel into me, to melt part of what I am and re-form it in another shape” (Object 42). Though each image works with the others to develop the narrative, a reader's gaze may linger on one illustration longer than on another. The full page portrait, following the panel depicting Rick's injury promotes this momentary pause because of its size (Figure 5). Though the shooting scene before emphasizes the existence of violence, it is not an instance of horrorism. Rather, it puts Rick into the position from which he will have to face that particular type of violence. In defining horrorism, a necessary condition is that victims are defenseless. During the standoff, he was armed and had his partner as an ally. Clearly he is not defenseless here, only bested. Now that we see Rick alone in the hospital it is obvious circumstances have changed. Rick is shown lying in bed while hooked to an IV. The outlined speech balloon indicating his gasp portrays a moment of awakening; presumably the first time he has regained consciousness since being shot. The next page is laid out in a nine panel grid that emphasizes Rick's weakness as he attempts to stand, falls, and cries out vainly for a nurse (Figure 6). As he moves through the hospital, the situation seems to become more helpless. While searching for another living person, he only encounters reanimated
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 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: Bingham 47 margins. Unlike the four
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.
Page 95 and 96: Fig. 38. Bingham 94
Page 97 and 98: 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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