Discussion of Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon's The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation; Henry Jenkins's “Captain America Sheds His Mighty Tears: Comics and September 11,” and Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers starting on April 23, 2007.

I have found the Graphic Adaptation of the Commission Report to be incredibly useful in understanding the information presented in the original Report. Although the original Report was written with the intent of being accessible to as many people as possible, one can only go so far with words. While I thought I understood fairly well the Report in text form, a lot of the details (especially regarding timelines and names) were fuzzy and I ended up skimming some of the more technical portions.

The graphic version cleared up all of these details. I was able to visually see the actions of all four planes on a simultaneous visual timeline, which made things so much clearer. As for names, I don't really have to remember them - I can simply remember faces, which is much easier for me. It makes the entire report so much easier to understand.

Why would the 9/11 Commission decide to hire comic book artists to do a visual version of their book? Clearly the result is a positive one. The details of the report are accessible to a much broader audience, and more appealing as well. In fact, I might even say a better question would be, why has nobody done something like this sooner?

While graphic adaptations of various literary works have been undertaken now and then, I don't believe such a thing has ever been done by a government organization. In order for the Commission to have taken such an unorthodox route, it seems like they must have felt incredibly strongly about getting the information out to the general public. Even having an incredibly well-written and popular prose version of the Report (there are so many copies in circulation that I bought mine used for only $1 online) wasn't enough for them.

There is one issue that the graphic version brings up for me, though: emotion. The original Report was written in a very neutral way, presenting the facts in as unbiased a way as possible (and I think they succeeded in doing that). Pictures, on the other hand, evoke emotion. By creating a graphic version, does the Commission risk bringing up feelings in the reader that they did not intend? There are some violent pictures in this book which might cause fear, anger, hatred, sadness, pain, or other strong feelings.

I think that if there's one book I'll be keeping from this semester, this is the one. I'm looking forward to seeing other peoples' thoughts on this.

I found the references to “time” in both graphic novels to be interesting, especially when compared to our last reading: “Windows on the World”.

Spiegelman says continiously: “On 9/11, time stopped.” Yet, Beigbeder’s novel is completely dependent on time progressing. To what can we attribute this discrepancy? Can time stop for one person and progress for another (at the same moment)? Or can we merely blame it on Beigbeder’s novel being a work of fiction?

The graphic version of “The 9/11 Commission Report” contains many timelines…both pictorially and narrative-ly. In fact, this is one area that I think the graphic novel succeeds over the (primarily) word-based novel. The graphic novel has an economic, easily comprehensible timeline of what happened on 9/11 – which one merely needs to glimpse at to understand the events of the morning. Comprehending the written version, though, requires much more time, dedication, and curiosity for/to/about 9/11.

Something else that surprised me about these two novels was the way that the comics were placed on the page. I’ve read many graphic novels, and found most of them very easy to follow – meaning I knew “how to read” them – often just right to left on the page, like a “regular” book. However, I found the “Report” and “ITSONT” to be much more disjointed than the usual graphic novel. Is this because of their subject matter? Are the artists mirroring the events? How much, then, is art an imitation of life? Are the comics trying to represent the national confusion felt after the events of 9/11?

I found In the Shadow of No Towers and the graphic adaptation of the 9/11 Commission Report to be interesting and engaging works. I enjoyed reading them and I found that I liked seeing the artists’ versions of that day. I liked the permanent orange silhouette of the World Trade Center in Spiegelman’s No Towers and the four part graphic timeline of each plane in the 9/11 Commission Report.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Spiegelman’s No Towers and thought that he had some good insights as to America’s behavior after 9/11. I also liked some of the asides in his work, such as the fake poster on page 3 whose tagline was: “NYC To Kids: Don’t Breathe!” I felt that Spiegelman’s piece was as satirical as it was personal to him and I appreciated it.

I also felt that these graphic portrayals of 9/11 could get away with more political humor or satire than fiction could. It is especially present in Spiegelman’s work, but also in the 9/11 Commission Report. For example, on page 40, the Report discusses the failures to coordinate policies and share vital intelligence between the various federal agencies. The bottom left corner shows three employees of these agencies and one says, “Better put this report away- he’s from Justice.” In the actual 9/11 Commission Report, these types of asides were practically nonexistent, whereas this is one of many examples in the graphic edition.

Art Speigleman's book is a heart-breaking work. Even as he is drawing this book, you can tell he is still unable to place himself and the event in the same place. He says at the opening of the book that the work is a way for him to cope, to work through the events, get what he saw out of his head so that he could move on. However, i never got the sense that he was able to even get to the event without slightly shying away. At points he turns himself into a mouse alter-ego, allowing himself to be distanced from what it is he has to say. But in the end, this seems almost excusable as he has some very powerful points to make and images to draw. He mixes media such as the "collateral damage" billboard with his own hand drawn images to give the book an eerie connection to our world. This narrative also mixes the idea of 9-11 being on par with the holocaust, or at least reminiscent of, by using his mouse avatars which he created for his Holocaust series, "Maus." The collected books create a synthesis, an analysis not of why the thing happened, but of how we have let it get to us. The falling man becoming a bum. The swearing man, a vagrant, going crazy and seeing hell before snapping back into life...by the end, when we see the old comics, we get a sense that these snap-shots of illustrated life were simple, but at the same time trying to say something. You could read Speigleman's book simply as a comic book, a graphic novel. In this way, it is a collection of short stories and responses, each one having its own place--seperate. Or, you could read the book for the message of hope, of being able to move on, but not forgetting where we came from.

Before, we spoke of the right to connect the Holocaust with 9/11. After reading the forward of No Towers, I feel Spiegelman used his history to inspire the book rather than using it to defend opinion. Defining something as a 'September 11th' book has been a side topic we have often resorted to, and I think this is a clear cut example. As I have stated before, I feel the topic of book is more easily defined by the Author's inspiration and intent. Spiegelman was clearly affected by September 11th, and his words do hold more clout with me after hearing the ordeal narrated by his personal caricature. This was very easy to enjoy, as I hold many of the same opinions. One particular bit that caught me was the mass display of flags. I have described this before as forced partiotism, and I still feel the same. "Nothin like the end of the world to help bring folks together". The mesh of his personal paranoia and the Risk of Terrorism Alerts (pg. 7), leading up to Red, White, and Blue Alert: Virtual Certitude of Terrorist Attack. Was this describing our nation hiding under the flag, as a virtual certitude that we will perform terrorist attacks on other countries? (Iraq)
Using Comics as a medium for expression is a great way to incorporate subliminal messages, for example the one I interpreted above, without actually writing in text an opinion that may come back to haunt you. Spiegelman describes the fear of dissent, and this was obviously his personal answer to that fear. Comics are also very easy to understand, and lend something extra to a visual learner like myself. With a novel, the reader can easily get mixed up with rhetoric, but when a depiction of the president throws oil on children representing the flaming towers, there is no need for 1000 words on Authors Intent. For my psychology class in highschool, we were forced to read pages on pages of Freud and Jung, but to supplement I bought a comic novel similar to 'No Towers' called 'Freud for Beginners', that allowed me to lead discussions about his theories. If education is entertaining, the student will learn far more. Comics may take much more effort, as Spiegelman described, but they also give a much better 'picture' of the message the author is trying to get across.

I was actually really glad that we ended the class with a fun reading. I found the illustrated version of The 9/11 Comission Report very entertaining and a great way to reach kids or adults who don't like to read serious books. I found that book to be especially explanatory and factually correct to the original report. I wish that I had read that sooner it would have made a great reference book to the research paper I wrote.

Spiegelman's book I though was important not only for answering the Jewish question regarding who has the right to talk about 9/11, but also it raises a very important question that isn't brought up much often, the air quality over New York and post 9/11. I just can't believe what toxins were released into the air. I feel he makes a good point, what are we going to do shut down New York for a decade?

Captain America and 9/11 also shows us how important comics are to American history and how they helped us in past wars or trajedies deal with the reality of a profound event. I did not like however the author's personal views on the PATRIOT Act, using it to scare children I felt.

This was a nice week to end on because it was kind of fun to look through the comics- I wish I had known about the graphic adaptation to the 9/11 Commission Report when we had to read the Report!

I never really thought about comics as a serious medium… honestly, the last time I read a comic was either in the Sunday paper funnies or my cousin’s Archie books from the 1980s. (80s? 90s? I’m not sure.) Anyway, I thought there was an interesting idea (and blow to GW) in the beginning of Jenkins’ “Captain America Sheds His Mighty Tears: Comics and September 11”, when he wrote that the way George W. Bush reduced the war on terrorism to a conflict between the “Axis of Evil” and the “Forces of Freedom” was kind of comic-bookish. Then he said it seemed grossly unfair- to comic books.

He also talked about how intellectuals were out of touch with the emotional state of the public after 9/11, and how critical theorists had given up hope that popular culture could be a meaningful site for political intervention. I think this is a very keen notion- popular culture is very important in shaping public opinion. It is true that every generation has their cause, and since the beginning of comic books, they have influenced politics and economics. The author mentioned the “Cultural Front” of the 1930s and 40s, which gave aesthetic form to the struggle against fascism at home and abroad. How can we deny that the multitude of anti-Bush administration products of popular culture have influenced the American public? It is evident in the change of public opinion regarding GWB over the past few years, and in things like the bumper sticker which I saw recently that said something like “1/20/09- Bush’s last day”.

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon was a very interesting but serious portrayal of the 9/11 report. I found that even though it is written as a comic, I still had no problem taking the material seriously, and if anything I felt I took it more seriously than other materials that we have read. The report, being in comic form with many graphics, cleared up a lot of questions I had from the previous report, while making the original report more clear to me. Many might argue that having actual photographs from 9/11 is more effective, but to me the cartoons did not make the report any less realistic. Reading the report I did not feel as if I was reading a comic book (which the report is categorized under) but instead felt I was reading a portrayal of the events of September 11th, with illustrations to back up the events.

To me the first 25 pages, a timeline of the event, really opened up the book and clearly explained the events of that horrific day in a timeline that was easy to understand. Being someone who can say I truly do not always enjoy reading, the graphic adaptation was an easy read, but was not a book that I would take lightly for the sole fact that it still depicted the events to point. Jacobson did not take out very much from the original report, but instead just makes the text easier to read, while making sure it is not too wordy. I would also say that Colon did an amazing job as the artist of the book using visuals that were not too overwhelming, showed the truth, while at the same time displaying the events of the day that would be read in the original report. I would say that this book is a must read, especially for someone looking to read books on 9/11 that convey the occurrences of that fateful day, but is not overwhelming. The captions, photographs, and text throughout the book, ending with a report card, is an excellent read but should not be taken lightly in the least bit.

In The Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman is a portrayal of the events that occurred on September 11, 2001. Reading this book after The 9/11 report: A Graphic Adaptation, I can honestly say they both had an incredible affect on me even though Spiegelman's book differed from Jacobson and Colon’s. One thing I immediately noticed was that Spiegelman did have a great connection to the book when he was creating it, and he put a lot of his emotions and stress of 9/11 into his work, which did make it very emotional for me as the reader. On the second page of the book Spiegelman states, “The pivotal image from my 9/11 morning- one that didn’t get photographed or videotaped into public memory but still remains burned onto the inside of my eyelids several years later”. This statement really shows the author's connection with that fateful day, and he is writing this book as a way to express his feelings of that morning and how his life has changed ever since. It is very important to realize that the author is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and his way of dealing with it is creating this book to share his encounter on September 11th, a day that no one will ever forget. I would consider this oversized book more of a memoir than a comic book, considering the book was written by someone that witnessed the attack first hand, and is using his talent to express his feelings. On a more personal level I felt that the book lacked a sense of organization and almost realization that The 9/11 Report A Graphic Adaptation strived in creating. I also felt that he used the book to express his political feelings, which at time took away from the meaning. I did really enjoy the book, but I did feel it lacked in some aspects, and would recommend The 9/11 Report A graphic Adaptation, before In the Shadow of No Towers.