We Live is set in a post apocalyptic future where 90% of the human race has been killed and the survivors have received a message that the entire race will die soon except for a small number of children who are sent wristbands to be extracted. The graphic novel follows Tala and her younger brother Hototo, who has been selected, as they brave the perils of traveling to the nearest extraction center. At the end of the novel it is revealed that there is an intergalactic counsel that voted to not give humans shelter in their galaxies but instead sent the wristbands to transform the chosen children into “superheroes” who could defend the rest of the population.

Some major eco horror themes throughout the novel are the variety of climate disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes, as well as mutated animals who brutally attack humans. At the beginning of the novel we see the news reporter describing these catastrophes as being “a furious nature attacked”, which ignores humans contributions to destroying the climate and creating these issues. A final major eco horror theme throughout the text is the mutation that turns humans into zombie-like creatures called Molders. The mutation/disease began in malnourished children in one of the most rural areas, and once someone is infected they need to touch the ground to complete their cycle and become able to spread the disease, or else they die. The need to be directly connected to the earth makes the mutation feel like a direct attack from the planet against humans. How the mutation began also relates to the disparity of how diseases affect people of lower economic standing more, since we see that the mutation did not begin in one of the big settlements, but instead in one of the outer areas where the inhabitants receive very little support and are forced to fend for themselves. Whatever turns humans into molders is referred to as both a mutation and virus throughout the novel and is why the novel fits our theme. One part of the novel's description of the virus that intensified the eco horror aspect of it was the blurring of the line between human and molder. In the third issue we see a doctor investigating the virus then become infected himself, and to continue to survive and research he eats live human hearts. This seems very perverse because he has technically lost his humanity, yet continues to attempt to find a cure, yet is also sacrificing human lives to do so. In Zombie Theory Webb and Byrand comment on this trope throughout all zombie related media, “The transmission of the “virus” between us and them indicates our closeness: viruses (mostly) travel between like species,” (Lauro, 112). We Live plays with this idea by showing both the corruption of humans and of the molders, yet the actions of the humans or even the more human seeming molders seem worse due to the premeditated quality. 

Since this is a comic, the horror aspects are going to come across differently then in say, a movie or book. Throughout the comic the author used gaps in the plot to build suspense and leave parts of the story up to the reader's imagination. They also used a lot of onomatopoeias to emphasize moments of action or surprise, since there is no audio aspect like in a movie. Bright colors and surprising images were used to catch the reader's attention and to emphasize the mutated qualities of the earth, especially the animals.