In one graphic depiction of the events on United 93, the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, passengers are seen bloodied and battling hijackers wielding knives."We've got to stop them! Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center," one passenger says, about to land a punch on a hijacker who has stabbed a passenger in the back with a knife.
[from Reuters]
It was announced back in February, but the news is really just breaking now: In September Hill & Wang will publish a graphic-novel version of the Congressional 9/11 Commission Report. Which is notable in itself, the use of the tools of what had once been considered kid stuff to lay bare the facts of a many-threaded historical event, as Publishers Weekly noted back in February:
The 9/11 Report adaptation, [Hill & Wang publisher Thomas LeBien] says, will "tell a complex story with greater clarity. Not enough Americans have read the original report." The adaptation LeBien explains, will "visually walk you through the FAA and the Department of Defense. It will show who is talking to who; offer a time line of the attacks; information on Islamic fundamentalism; the transition from the Clinton administration to Bush. Everything that's in the report, and it's all studiously apolitical, just like the original report."
But the fact that comics have not yet achieved a real measure of respect is sure to come across in the coverage of the work... as is already beginning. Book blog Galleycat takes on a story in the New York Post:
The Post story is suffused with tabloid-y melodrama, as well as falling prey to the "gee whiz, comics are grown up now" mindset that hampers most mainstream coverage of the comic book industry. Like the opening line, "It's a giant leap from Jughead to The 9/11 Report." Which is certainly true, except that the creative team of Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón worked together at Harvey Comics, the home of Richie Rich, not Archie Comics
And it gets more geek-enraged from there.
Just as I’m not sure I’m ready to see the new film United 93, I’m not sure I’m ready for this, either. Here’s a taste (click for a larger image) from Publishers Weekly:





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