Old before their time: the impossibility of childhood innocence in The Walking Dead

Abstract

Many in Western culture see childhood as innocent and children as pure, even though this is often not the case. Because of this inaccurate view, many contemporary narratives push back against the feasibility of maintaining childhood innocence. One such narrative is Robert Kirkman’s serialised comic book The Walking Dead, in which children are exposed to potentially traumatic events, like death and violence, on a daily basis. The comic book juxtaposes images and situations containing children and youth against the horrific environment in which the characters find themselves, often with devastating results. These juxtapositions demonstrate the impossibility of maintaining innocence in a dangerous world. The child Carl’s rapid movement towards adulthood is also analogous to the transition towards more adult content in comic books. The movement towards more adult content in a form that some thought was, or should be, strictly for children is, in some ways, representative of the futility in attempting to shelter children from adult content.

Keywords:

• childhood
• comics
• innocence
• youth
• The Walking Dead

Notes

1. The Walking Dead does not contain page numbers. Also, Book 1 contains volumes 1 and 2 of the soft-cover trade editions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Heimermann

Mark Heimermann is a doctoral candidate in the English department at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and serves on the executive committee of the International Comic Arts Forum.