Thankfully that whole Middle East hoohah has sorted itself out, and Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinians can now resume their quiet, peaceful existences. And me? I can start writing about another hobby besides counting Israeli war crimes: comic books.
Yesterday at the TomPaine.com offices, deep in a bunker beneath an undisclosed location within Fajar-3 missile range of the Capitol we received a special promotional copy of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón (published by Hill and Wang—coming to a Borders near you later this month).
What, you hadn't heard that the 9/11 Commission's best-selling report is about to be released in the most American of all media, the comic book? Michael Eisner already wants to make the comic book into a movie (no joke ).
When editor-in-chief Isaiah J. Poole slammed a copy on my desk, he said, "Heitner! Get me everything you know about this damned comic—I want 800 words on Umberto Eco's principle of the 'open text' as it relates to the American superhero, a comparative Barthesian analysis of Art Spiegelman's aesthetic and a concise history of U.S. counterterrorism strategy and Islamic jihad theology, and I want it yesterday!"
I replied that I'd be happy to scan in some of the pictures and make fun of the project. Our primary competitors over at Katharine Graham's scandal rag have already lavished praise on the comic while forefronting their complete ignorance of the finer points of cartoon aesthetic theory:
Colón and Jacobson said they weighed sensitivity issues, such as whether it was appropriate to use words such as "Blam!" to denote explosions.
Come on, guys.
First, the tough part: I do have to acknowledge that despite Colón's former status as pretty much a hack artist for Richie Rich (not Jughead, as the factually-impaired liberal media would have you believe), he does make effective use of the potential for sequential art to do something no fancy-pants Oliver Stone movie, made-for-HBO documentary or even the original report could do.
The comic format uniquely allows the reader to follow the multiple events of 9/11 in parallel without confusion. That's pretty cool to see.
But the dueling-timelines, action-packed story of dastardly hijackers and heroic passengers only makes up the first 20 pages or so of the comic, the first chapter of the report.
But then the report goes into the technical details of the history: Usama Bin Ladin (or Osama bin Laden, as we know him these days) and his evil network, U.S. efforts to combat him through the nineties, and the heroism and failures of the day.
And what do we gain from having these things illustrated for us? Unfortunately, in the dull, literal hands of the authors, very little.
Exhibit A: is there anything gained from drawing a bunch of phone operaters saying the phone system is swamped with a caption from the 9/11 report saying, the phone system was swamped?
Any critique of a comic's effectiveness must weigh whether the art and the text balance each other, assist each other, or just become superfluous. Guess what happens most of the time here?
And yet sometimes I found myself with precisely the opposite complaint. Much of the 9/11 Commission's credibility came from their assiduous bipartisanship. Members recall writing the report and deliberately stripping out any adjectives to make sure it read as factually and unbiased as possible.
Yet in this comic we are treated to quite frankly ludicrous depictions of events that can't help but color our perceptions of what's being described. I don't really know what sort of meticulous research went into preparing the visual references for the comic, but Colón claims in the WaPo interview that he looked at photos of the terrorists and government officials to draw them.
And this was the best they could do representing the Afghan campaign against the Soviets?
Exhibit B: He's waving a freaking scimitar .
I'm sorry, I question the historical veracity of that.
It's like Not Without My Daughter. Edward Said would be rolling over in his poor grave right now, except that Edward Said was probably too snooty to read comic books.
I'm also a big fan of their depiction of the infamous moment when Bush, in a Florida elementary school, is informed of the first plane hitting the tower.
"Oh no! Must have been pilot error!"
Oh, snap! Thankfully, neither toad-like Karl Rove nor tubby Andrew Card have anything to fear with a resolute, broad-shouldered President Bush standing manfully outside the door to that kindergarten classroom.
Look, we all remember Classics Illustrated. They were, from the perspective of a connoissuer, terrible comics, largely lacking in any artistic qualities.
That's what this is. And, like Classics Illustrated, the purpose isn't the comic. The purpose is to basically fill you in on the plot details of a book you won't read otherwise. And on that level, 9/11 Commission Chair Thomas Kean and I agree: A graphic adaptation works. I still haven't read the original.
And I do kinda agree with the way Colón draws Dick Cheney in his single appearance. A snarling little man shying away from others.
Anyways, the moral of the story? Nothing with a crying fireman on the cover can be good.
--Ethan Heitner |
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 9:45 AM
