Score: 10
"A Classic!"
date: May 14, 2006
The Non-Linvingstons are, apparently, a family of zombies (who might have been living in the 1950s) living amongst modern people. (Perhaps this is the creator's subconscious belief of the death of art? His later works seem to sacrifice art for B-rated humor.)
In Episode 1, Johnny goes to school amongst the living children. His father tells him the usual irrelevant inanities that typical adults tell children -- Johnny is maybe five years old and worried about getting beaten up by sticks, but his father tells him that if he's anything like this father, he should be more worried about beating off women with sticks. Moreover, his father jokingly says that Johnny has to go to school or else his father will be put in jail. Johnny, however, takes his words seriously.
Johnny's teacher and classmates are living people who make fun of Johnny's non-livingness. His teacher complains that he should be in a morgue, and forces him to sit in the back of the class. When Johnny's hands fall off from trying to move his desk, the whole class laughs. Then, a prankster shoots a paper airplane into Johnny's (dead zombie) head.
Johnny then has a vision where he contemplates not going to school. He sees his father going to jail, his mother becoming a druggie slut to some pimp, and himself digging in the trash for zombie food.
The style is distinctive and ingenious. The Non-Livingstons are death-colored, as are their eyes. Yet, despite their obvious dead-looking-ness, they look more real than everyone else. The other children are drawn to appear more like cartoon drawings than real characters.
The teacher preaches Socialism from "The Book of Lies." The teacher's an old lady perhaps on the verge of death. Yet, she holds a bond with the other living children, in their common ridicule of Johnny.
The relations between Johnathan Livingston Seagull and the series' namesake are foreshadowed in Johnny's role.
