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

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Bingham 54 Shane has adopted many of the traits of the deadly criminal in that opening scene, including his grimace. His intense expression looks like a hybrid combination between disgust and anger. 2 In this grid, both characters appear in the same number of panels and in balanced positions. These moment to moment transitions amplify the tension of the explosive situation. With the gun pointed to his chest, the palms of Rick's hands face out toward the barrel. His vulnerability is highlighted by this stance of surrender. A smear of blood runs from Rick's right nostril, further emphasizing the situation's dynamic. The close-up shot alternates from Rick back to Shane, whose recorded dialogue even bears an eerie resemblance to the crazed gunman from the opening panels. The speech balloons coming from his turned down mouth are distorted as well: one opens up into the gutter and the other is formed from jagged lines rather than being rounded. The design technique of opening up Shane's words into the space of the margin interrupts closure that readers would make distinguishing actions between panels. Alternately, trading smooth balloons for ones with sharp, pointed edges conveys a tone of anger. His tirade continues on the next page in a panel spanning its width: “I'VE GOT NOTHING, RICK!! NO FRIENDS!! NO FAMILY!! NO RESPECT!! NO FUCKING LIFE!! THIS FUCKING WORLD! THIS FUCKING GOD-FORSAKEN WORLD OF SHIT! THERE'S NOTHING FOR ME HERE RICK!! NOTHING!” The speech balloons containing this text are also altered in a similarly fashion to those in the preceding panel. As tears fall from his eyes, we see Shane indirectly admit his feelings for Lori. His grief doubles Lori's but is imbued with anger; it conveys a desperation which readers cannot help but feel somewhat sympathetic toward. Although readers may sympathize slightly with Shane, the overwhelming affect produced by this situation is one of a fear for Rick's well-
Bingham 55 being who has done nothing to deserve this. Shane places the blame on Rick for his loss of stability and the chance to have love. Graphically, this scene accentuates the internal turmoil of the moment through the absence of backgrounds in the close-up shots which juxtapose Shane and his unarmed target. Four of the six panels on this particular page have plain white backgrounds and use negative space to focus the attention of the readers upon dialogue. 3 On the following page, Shane cocks his shotgun and turns it toward Rick, ready to fire. Of the five panels which appear on this page, the first, fourth, and fifth occupy its entire width. The second and third are completely devoid of drawn backgrounds; the former illustrates Shane aiming his gun at Rick with a descriptive speech balloon that opens up into the gutter once more, while the latter illustrates Rick raising his hand in surrender. Both men are positioned at the center of the page. Putting each man side by side emphasizes the immediacy of the scenario and oddly seems to place the two in an equal stance. The fourth panel, which is longer than these two, confirms this equality as it depicts Shane's wincing face as a bullet tears through his neck (Figure 17). This image directly parallels the moment when the camp was overrun by zombies and Amy was unexpectedly bitten in the neck (Figure 10). The bullet tears through Shane's neck as the creature's teeth ripped through hers. Black ink representing blood appears to squirt toward the right of the panel, indicating the velocity of the bullet. Extending the trajectory of the bullet into the realm of moral or ethical metaphor, it could be argued that killing Shane is a step in the right direction. Behind Shane, “BLAM!” spans across the background. The letters are so large there is only a half millimeter gap between their edges and the panel's border in certain spots. Shane's head stands in for the “A,”
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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 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: Bingham 53 Amy (Figure 10 & 11). Th
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
Page 101 and 102: Bingham 101 Chapter III: Speaking o
Page 103 and 104: 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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