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

Bingham 62
killing is practically a necessary condition of survival in this possible world, it can still
cause internal conflict. Even if characters have accepted this precondition, they might
have done so with ambivalence or even guilt. Nevertheless, their attitudes toward killing
are reshaped.
We see Rick coping with this inversion of normalcy later on in the chapter. After
Shane's death, the group first took residence in a gated community called Wiltshire
Estates and later on the farm owned by Hershel Greene. Both of these locations were
overrun by “herds,” or large masses of walkers that act with a mob mentality. Referring
to beings which were once human as one might a pack of wild animals, the creators have
forced readers to reconsider what distinguishes their existence from that of any other
creature. After suffering casualties in both places and being forced from these locations,
Rick and his group clear out and occupy an abandoned prison. Once they gain access to
the compound's interior, they find four prisoners who've been locked inside the cafeteria.
Despite having come across other survivors, Rick and his group are immediately
distrusting of these criminals. Their past convictions still inform their current status.
Kirkman and Tony Moore emphasize this by having each criminal identify himself by
naming the crime he has been incarcerated for (Figure 21). Tension is emphasized here
by an abundance of facial shots. This also helps readers to pair dialogue with emotion,
thus easing the absorption of content in largely word specific scenes. Heavy shadows
make the convicts seem all the more imposing. First, we see a grizzled inmate with long
white hair and beard state his crime: “Armed robbery.” Next there's a reverse angle shot
of a balding man wearing glasses from profile: “Tax Fraud—But it wasn't my fault.”
Below this panel stands a windy explanation from a bug-eyed ex-addict: “Drugs, man—