9/11 - A Topic in Visual Medium

By David Rasmussen
17th Sep 06

Today is about as good a time to talk about this.
Today is, after all, September 11th 2006... Five years after 9/11.
Strangely enough, yesterday I was watching FOX News (when I wasn‘t working to fill deadlines or edit things or whatever needed to be done), and once again FOX News’ disconnect with reality (or culture in general) came through rather loud and clear. Don’t get me started on their video game bashing, or their ignorance about the whole Anime/Manga field which they know less than zero about, let’s talk about their concerns over the “controversy” concerning the latest graphic novel depicting the events of 9/11.
Drawn from the official records of the 9/11 Commission Report (from my understanding of the book itself though I could be wrong), the title recreates the events of 9/11 in a visual format using the official records as a guide to this recreation. Simple enough, right? So why is this title still considered (yesterday by FOX News) “controversial”, “inappropriate“ or “disrespectful“?

Well if you’re not watching ABC (which is run by the big mouse that is Disney) you might not know they’ve been running a two night event called “The Path to 9/11”. This is already getting on the case of the Clinton administration because they think it’s bad for them the way it came out, putting words into people’s (I.e. Clinton Administration officals) mouths and implying things that people don’t recollect happening.
OK, this being on the nerve of some is not surprising, after all CBS did have that Reagan bash fest movie of theirs, and then Michael Moore had his 9-11 movie bashing the Republicans so finding someone offended by the latest politically motivated 9-11 movie is no big surprise (shouldn’t be). So, in this context, what is so darn controversial about the latest graphic novel to speak of 9-11? Shouldn’t be controversial since it seems to be all on the up and up being based on the records of the 9/11 Commission (from what I know of it, though I could be wrong which could be the reason behind the controversy) so what could it be?

Hmm… one thing I noticed they fixated on was… eh… the fact that they used comic like sound effects in this comic? Eh? Oh-kay… that wasn’t the smartest thing, since more often than not the most powerful visuals in comics are the one without a single sound (visual or otherwise), but is that it? Hope not.
On a separate not I do have to admonish the two people who did this work for using SFX noises for the critical moments of the retelling since, well, it IS abit cheap seeming plastering words like “BLAM” and other comic book staple sound effects on images of the World Trade Center being struck by hijacked airplanes, or the Pentagon collision or the crash of Flight 93. Come on, I might not have a major list of comic credits under my name but even I know that the above faux pas with this latest 9-11 inspired graphic novel concering the placement of certain SFX is a tad bit on the questionable side gentlemen! Come on!

I do hope FOX News isn’t questioning this because they actually think this graphic novel is the FIRST to relate to 9-11 though, come on even FOX News is not THAT out of it! If FOX News can actually bring themselves to remember that far back, back to 2001 to 2002, then they’d know this graphic novel of the events of 9-11 really shouldn’t be news other than to let people know it’s available for purchase because, well, it wasn’t the first time the topic of 9-11 has come up in comics.

In the days, weeks and months after 9/11 comic creators came together in both the mainstream and independent comic industries here in the United States and began to release what you can call the 9/11 Collection (if you are a nitpicker who needs to put everything into it‘s category).
Books on both sides of the aisle created for the purpose of raising funds to benefit the organizations, which in turn used the money to help 9/11 victims (both individuals and communities).

From MARVEL Comics alone came several outings : A Moment of Silence, Heroes and Mighty Marvel Must Haves #2 featuring Amazing Spider-Man #36 (the 9-11 issue). (With more, by the way, that I unfortunately do not have for review… including a new direction for Captain America which had him busting terrorists, to an entire series just dedicated to Firemen (for starters as I remember it)).

From the independent communites came I Love NY& 9-11 Emergency Relief (one of three graphic novels dedicated to 9-11relief efforts through it sales in the early days after 9-11).
Finally, from the mainstream community of creators came the effort that was 9-11(the other two graphic novels).
Volume 1 was printed by Dark Horse, and was a collaboration of Dark Horse, Chaos! And Image artists.
Volume 2 was printed by DC Comics and contained several collaborations from across the mainstream creative board (but had a way too long title to repeat… why?!?).

And that’s what we’re here for, to look back at these books and remember them… you know, lest you forget as much as FOX News seemingly forgot. Then again just because nobody mentioned it doesn’t mean they forgot but… let’s skip that. Anyway let’s start off with the smaller issues… PS, if you can find these somewhere (online at Amazon or perhaps at a better stocked bookstore or (heaven forbid) in a reprint from the individual companies) be sure to get these, if nothing more than from their historical aspect these powerful reads will stick with you for sometime even if the efforts they were originally assembled to raise money for are no longer going as far as I know of them.

A Moment of Silence
Publisher - MARVEL Comics
By Mark Bagley, Brian Michael Bendis, Bill Jemas, Igor Kordey, Scott Morse, Joe Quesada, John Romita Jr., and Kevin Smith.
Printed in America 2002

Four stories focus on the events of 9/11 from NYC and ground zero (the World Trade Center).
In “Moment of Truth” (Bill Jemas/Mark Bagley & Scott Hanna) it’s September 11th, 2001 and Mr. Anthony Savas (a resident of Astoria, Queens since 1965 with his wife and three adult children, one of whom worked at MARVEL Comics) has just left for work as the building inspector for the Port Authority working on the seemingly endless construction and renovation taking place within the World Trade Center.
Today Mr. Anthony Savas is going to become a hero, and do the right thing as the crisis unfolds.

“Moment of Silence” (Brian Michael Bendis/Scott Morse/Jason Hvam & Sharpefont’s Paul Tutrone) has a story by comic bookstore owner slash firefighter John Dudas (from Cleveland, Ohio) as told to Brian Michael Bendis & Scott Morse, retelling how he and a couple of other firefighters headed to NYC to assist with efforts there. The title, Moment of Silence, is a reference to when everyone fell silent upon the possible discovery of a survivor (everyone fell silent listening intently for a sign of life within the rubble).

In “Sick Day” (Joe Quesada/Igor Kordey/Soto & PT) a family struggles with the loss of one of their own, father and husband both, who was one of the members of the NYFD lost on 9/11.

Finally in “Periphery” (Kevin Smith/John Romita Jr./Norm Rapmund & Avalon) another family deals with the events of 9-11, only with a different ending waiting for them at the end

Mighty Marvel Must Haves #2
(Collecting Amazing Spider-Man #36)
Publisher - MARVEL Comics
Amazing Spider-Man #36 by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, Avalon’s Dan Kemp & Comicraft’s Wes ‘n Rich)
Printed in America 2001

Odds are you will never find a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #36. Let’s forget the fact that this is during J. Michael Straczynski’s run on the title, this is the 9-11 issue and lord knows any possible copy out there is either all bought up or being sold at a high high price. However if you’ve been watching MARVEL’s new trend to reprint their stuff in this new thick issue format you noticed that they’re reprinting J. Michael Straczynski’s run which MIGHT include this issue’s story… maybe.
But if you can find it there, or here, you might want to pick this up.

In the middle of an already rolling storyarc the title stops… and September 11th, 2001 happens.
The first two panel spread showing Spider-Man (gripping his head in shock), the collapsed World Trade Center towers laid before him, showing the stark scene before him that will only become more gripping as he enters ground zero to assist in the rescue efforts. Efforts which seems to have brought out a whole lot of the MARVEL Universe, including the so-called “evil” characters who sometimes try to kill millions of people… just not today. With super heroes standing alongside everyday heroes, as well as with those who were supposed to be “villians” (Dr. Doom, the Kingpin and Magneto) at this site, these are the times that tries even the “strongest” of human beings.

You’ll probably have to get the Trade Paperback version of Mighty Marvel Must Haves (if they put it all together), and while there are several titles in this collection worth reading this is the one you should be looking for in the batch.

HEROES
Publisher - MARVEL Comics
By Various Artists
Printed in America 2001

This collection of artwork by some of the greatest talents of the mainstream industry is also one of the first books put together for 9-11 benefits. Images concerning the World Trade Center highlight this title, whose sales were to benefit the Twin Towers Fund. Another hard to come by publication to be certain.

I Love N.Y.
Publisher - Linsner.com
By Joseph Michael Linsner
Printed in America 2002

Sales of this title raised $10,000 which went to the American Red Cross.
Hard to say what it’s about so I’ll just make it simple. It’s a personal account from individuals (Linsner and company) about their reaction to 9-11 from their own POV. Simple enough, and yet important at the same time. Yet another hard to come by publication most certainly.

And now the Graphic Novels.
As now you probably noticed this, but to note… to this point all focus from the smaller sized publications have focused entirely on the World Trade Center Twin Towers. At no point in any of these is any major focus put on either the Pentagon or Flight 93, but that shifts now that we’re entering the three graphic novels starting off with the Independent version.

9-11 Emergency Relief
Publisher - Alternative Comics
By Various Creators
Printed in America 2002

This title, the only one of three from independent creators, is a who’s who of the independent publishing world giving mostly slices of life recollections of 9-11. From where they were on that day, to how they coped with the tragedy, the full spectrum of the experience from many different eyewitness viewpoints and experiences in the independent comic world (and a few people who work for, say MARVEL, but were still part of the Independent creator community).

This, in a sense, makes 9-11 Emergency Relief abit better than 9-11 Artists Respond since it is basically entirely (as far as I know) all personal accounts of the day from the creators tagged to do the work, providing such a wide scale of responses and retellings of personal accountings that it makes the book feel like you’re sitting with these people hearing out their personal recollections of the day (as opposed to the mainstream version which follows this pacing but also has a few rare appearances of characters like Static or John Constantine (not played by Keanu Reeves) which kind of breaks the personal recollections feel here and there).

If you don’t mind a more handdrawn feel to the artwork that is rough and gritty then the personal accountings of the stories of 9-11 Emergency Relief should be on your pick-up list.

And finally…
9-11 Volume 1 to 2
Publisher - Dark Horse (Volume 1) and DC Comics (Volume 2)
By Various Creators
Printed in America 2002

The mainstream answer to 9-11 Emergency Relief (the Independent comic community speaks out).
This is probably the only time in all the books I mentioned from the Mainstream companies (publishing wise) where both the Pentagon and Flight 93 are mentioned. It’s not much, as most of the stories still revolve around the World Trade Center, but each volume do have a few standouts to mention that diverge from this focus that seems to be the order of the day for most of these tribute books.
(PS - Volume 2 sports the best cover of all the books reviewed, it featuring the Alex Ross cover of Superman and Krypto standing before a gigantic mural of the true heroes of 9-11 in awe (a cover reproduced from the cover of The Big All-American Comic Book by Kubert, Hibbard, Mayer and others)).

Volume 1 : Artists Respond
“Sacrifice” by Paul Chadwick focuses on the sacrifice made by the passengers of Flight 93 on Sept. 11th (which, as you remember, was the focus of this year’s Flight 93 movie).

“3 Second Impact” by Scott Morse has the personal recollection feel that you see in 9-11 Emergency Relief (from the independent creators) of which quite a few creators in Artist Respond reflect in their stories (abit much to list here as it‘ll be a long list).

“The Sky Was So Blue That Day” by Enrico Cabarosa shows that even in what seems to be a distant future people won’t forget what happened on 9-11 (as a large alien community comes together as a little girl recreates in sand the twin towers which leads to something special happening)

In “Shoes!” by William Stout a certain someone in 1980 Zagreb, Yugoslavia loves America. Really.

In “ New York Report” by R. Sikoryak the topic of 9-11 is looked at through the eyes of the comic strips with a slant on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Cathy, For Better Or Worst, and Peanuts.

In a thing that should have gotten FOX News complaining, a two page spread called “Which One Is Real?” (Words by Bob Harris and Artwork by Gregory Ruth) which asks you which is real… then you get comparisions such as which GW Bush is real (not the one speaking to the southern racists) and which Jerry Falwell is real (it’d be the evil one I suppose since there’s nothing holy about him.

Also a reminder that the NYPD had a few things to be ashamed about before they got their acts together post 9-11 and started (hopefully) flying right, and the thing about Oliver North being not so clean before he got his spiffy clean FOX News job and his FOX News show… guess in this one case FOX News having selective amnesia is a good thing… (oh, and remember Mr. North, if adult male Nicaraguans show up at your house on Halloween dressed like South American “freedom fighters” (or Hugo Weaving from V For Vendetta the Movie or the Matrix trilogy) with large weapons cases marked “Happy Halloween” and looking for weapons as treats turn them away immediately and call the police!)

Brian Pulido, Ivan Reis, Joe Pimentel and Comicraft’s Jimmy Betancourt pay tribute to one of the first people killed post 9-11 in an outbreak of anti-islamic hate crimes (which is truly sad since the man in question was a peaceful man from India beloved by his community whose only crime was having a beard and wearing a turban).

In “Maybe Next Year” by Davide Fabbri, we look at what America might have been like post 9-11 after the “War on Terror” ended… though, with gas prices the way they are now, I don’t think American families are going to be running out for Stryker Brigade armored vechiles or discount M-1 tanks to take their children to school.

Volume 2 : The World’s Finest Comic Book Writers & Artists Tell Stories To Remember
Quickly let’s browse the super appearances in this one (there is quite abit of the everyday heroes greatness in this one but I’m running abit long here).

But first… a rare Pentagon setting story, one of several stories where the brave answer the call of duty.
In one of the few Pentagon located stories done in all of these, “The Firsts Divisoin”, one good Colonal who doesn’t realize yet that he’s passed is given the chance to answer the “call of duty” of a higher calling, in the ranks of the order of The Firsts Division along with the likes of George Washington, and the first soliders who fell in wars past.

In “Wake Up” by Joe Kelly, Scott Knlins, Dan Pandsian & John Workman we share a personal moment with a young man and a moment with his police officer mother (who died on September 11th). A tribute to the brave policewomen of NYC who died answering their own call of duty on that day.

In “The Job” by Josh Krach, Scott McDaniel, James Pascoe, Todd Klein and Dave Stewart an Emergency Medical worker whose mind seems to be distracted finds his focus (and his purpose) at the World Trade Center site where he has to get himself together even as he is seperated from his fellow EMS comrades by the collapse of the second tower.

In a story by Beau Smith, Val Semeiks, Romeo Tanghal, Kurt Hathaway and Lee Loughridge we see the rescue efforts of ground zero from the eyes of a unit of freshly deployed soldiers who soon find that this will be a mission they’ve never faced before (and will most likely never leave them long after they leave the field days and days later).

Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti & Paul Mounts pass stories from ground zero that they’ve heard. Be them factual, be them fairly accurate, or be them rumors that may be true it doesn’t matter. These snapshots of seven upbeat and inspiring accounts of ground zero make up the two page “Silver Linings in a Big Dust Cloud”. (NOTE - Apparently good cooking is rumored to have earned one female restaurant owner a marriage proposal… no idea if she said yes or not.)

In “Spirit” by Alex Simmons, Angelo Torres & Dave Tanguay we find Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., Chief Joseph, General Douglas McArthur, Chief Shaka of the Zulu, Ghandi, Abraham Lincoln, and more all sit together and discuss the turn of events and their own histories.

In “The Sleeping Giant” by Stan Lee, Marie Severin & Ken Bruzenak we hear an Aesop’s Fable like story of the ills of awakening a sleeping giant elephant through violence (hint - it involves lots of tramplings and stompings of the bad rats in this story)

Then we have the appearances by the powerful (who in some stories still feel so powerless in the fact or terror in the real world).

In “Unreal” by Steven T. Seagle, Duncan Rouleau and Arron Sowd a fictional Superman reflects on how powerless he truly is in the face of real events. Thankfully, however, there are real heroes out there to do what even the Man of Steel cannot.

In “Wednesday Afternoon” by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Prentis Rollins & Phil Felix the one and only long term survivor of the short term cultural experiment by DC Comics called Milestone Media (Static from Static Shock) appears here as he has to defend a good man from racial hatred in the light of rising islamaphobia. (PS - Kudos to Dwayne McDuffie for keeping Static relevant and out there by keeping the Static Shock TV Series (Animated) on for as long as it was, packing in several good seasons of the show before it finally went down (I haven’t heard of it in a long time so I’m sure it’s been canceled) which includes a few episodes featuring Batman, the Justice League, Green Lantern and the Justice League dropping in on Dakota (or vice versa).

Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, Richard Starkings & Alex Sinclair bring you a story from Astro City called “Since the Fire” which is nice… but it doesn’t really tie into 9-11 much except for a tribute to firefighters.

In “A Hard Day’s Night” by Jeph Loeb, Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino & Richard & Tanya Horie we have a story of the canine workers of the World Trade Center site… guess who shows up! (Odds are it’s going to be a dog super character.)

Note “I Paparazzi” by Pat McGreal, Stephen John Phillips, Steven Parke and Susan Mangen. Look at the policeman who saves Kyle Jacobs (the aforementioned Paparazzi) in this story… isn’t that the guy who played the cop killed by the T-1000 from Terminator 2 : Judgement Day?

Raven (Teen Titans… though isn’t she all adult now?) gives a distraught youth hope in “This, too, shall pass”. (by Marv Wolfman, Barry Kitson, Rich Faber & Ken Lopez).

In “The American Dream” by Paul Levitz, Jim Lee, Tood Klein & Alex Sinclair we are greeted by Lucien (the librarian of the Endless) walks you through the history of NYC and the dreams of all who walked it’s landscape.

Finally (last one I’m noting so we can wrap this) in “The Wheel” by Neil Gaiman, Chris Bachalo, Tood Klein, Rob Ro & Alex Bleyaert, a youth with questions standing high on a ferris wheel within site of the Twin Towers site (ground zero) is stuck as answers seem to be the kind that only death can answer… lucky you person on top of the ferris wheel looking for answers, Death in the DC Universe is actually talkative and makes house calls… or ferris wheel calls in this case.

A few AmeriManga talents (or those with a style that suggests AmeriManga talent) do contribute, though for the most part it seemed the AmeriManga community was rather silent for 9-11 tributes. But those who did respond was Jamie S. Rich (Dark Horse) and Chynna Chugston-Major (for a mostly silent one pager about two people swapping e-mails and a virtual hug of support). Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo) also contributes a two pagers to Volume 1.

NOTE - In a story by Peter Gross, Darick Robertson & Clem Robins we see that, well, even if they haven’t gotten around yet to putting together the WTC Memorial it will be built eventually. After all in this story it’s standing tall and proud and it only took… uh… one thousand, two hundred… and fifty seven years.
Guys, not to be pushy or anything, but at least build the memorial BEFORE the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) is built!

Let’s wrap this up. No need for breakdowns because this goes beyond that. Let’s just rate it.
For it’s historical content, and it’s relevance that is still present to today, I’m going to recommend these. Finding them may not be easy (doubt it’ll be easy), and the funds the sales of these were made to benefit are probably no longer getting money from the sales of these (probably), but getting these for your collection (for those of you who want a piece of history that isn’t a copy of Disney’s Path to 9-11 or Michael Moore’s Bush-bash fest documentary) will enjoy these.
Let’s give these their gold star for being good… a Gold Highly Recommended Star.
That’s that. See you around.

-- David Rasmussen 17th Sep 06