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

Bingham 53
Amy (Figure 10 & 11). This becomes a breaking point for Shane who punches Rick
square in his jaw while a majority of the group, including Carl, watches the next morning
(Figure 12 & 13). When Rick follows Shane into the woods, things take a turn for the
worst. Lori falls to her knees as Rick runs after Shane. A four panel grid which takes up
almost the whole width of the page reveals her painful acquiescence to fate. As others
crowd around her to offer support, Carl is shown watching his father run off and
subsequently chases after him. In the second to last panel where we see Carl mid-sprint,
Lori hangs her head at her upturned palms and says: “It's never going to be the same
again. We're never going to be normal...” The last panel shows her looking up as tears
stream down her cheeks toward her pouted lips: “Just look at us” (Figure 14). Artistry
leads us to identify strongly with Rick's wife in this moment. Lori's expression is
strikingly similar to the universally recognized expression of sadness, which is just one of
six identified by Paul Ekman (McCloud, Making 83). Changes in her head position and
gaze also amplify the emotional connection to the reader. Her plea to the group members
dually reminds readers of how powerful the medium and story they are engaging are;
both will have a direct impact upon their future perceptions.
Transitioning next to the action unfolding between Rick and Shane, we see Rick
attempt to stop his partner and reason with him (Figure 15). Shane then aims the barrel
of his shotgun squarely at Rick's chest and begins to scream emotionally (Figure 16).
This moment seems to harken back to the shootout between Rick, Shane, and the
unnamed criminal where the narrative began. Though the gun-wielding madman is
different, Rick is again facing the situation with his back to the reader as he had been in
the opening shootout. Whereas Rick seems to have returned to his original positioning,