Comics industry unites
for 9/11 tributes

---

By Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.com

The national tragedy of the 9/11 assault struck home in a peculiar niche of the entertainment/communications industry. Like the major TV networks and book publishers, the world center for the comics industry is in New York, and artists and writers took it personally.

The world isn't the same, and the comic books and graphic novels appearing since are reflecting this new reality. The best-known example is the upcoming Spiderman movie, which featured a World Trade Center sequence that had to be deleted from previews. 'Zines with ongoing stories are now riddled with references to the attack, and superheroes powerless to prevent the tragedy now have survivor's angst.

Pearl Harbor veterans often say the attack on the Navy base "looked like a movie," for that was their frame of reference, and the idea of airliners crashing into gigantic buildings and wreaking Armageddon is pure comic-book fantasy. Except that it was real.

The first company to take decisive action was New York-based Marvel, and they quickly published a "jam" publication called "Heroes," filled with highly personal reactions by artists and writers to 9/11. It has since become the most successful comic title in history, going through multiple printings and raising funds for charity. It's been at least half a decade before a comic title got anywhere near the $1 million mark.

Similar projects were quickly out from Alternative Comics "9-11: Emergency Relief," with proceeds benefiting the American Red Cross, and two volumes of "9-11: Artists Respond," from Dark Horse, Chaos! and Image, a variety of publishers working together.

The talent assembled -- all working in peak form -- is extraordinary. We're talking Frank Miller, Eric Powell, John Muth, David Chelsea, Bill Dodge, Anne Richardson, Kevin Nowlan, Paul Sloboda, Paul Chadwick, Randy Stradley, Dave Gibbons, Scott Morse, Phil Elliott, Leland Myrick, Jeph Loeb, J. Scott Campbell, Brian Miller, Eric Drooker, William Stout, Hawaii's Stan Sakai, Paul Chadwick, Tony Millionaire, Sam Henderson, Mike Diana, Dean Motter, Kevin Smith, Darko Macan, Robert Smigel, Michael Kupperman, Harvey Pekar, Frank Cho and James Kochalka and, and, and ... the great Will Eisner, who essentially invented the medium.

The work is extraordinary, because it's heartfelt and direct. The stories -- more like meditations -- get right into the human reaction to tragedy. No superheroes allowed. They're expressing grief, patriotism, and support in a wide variety of voices and styles, rather like the concept of America itself. There's blood, sweat, tears and ink here.

Even those who disdain comics as a storytelling medium will be moved by the deeply moving storytelling technique on display in these works. The sobering irony is that one of our darkest hours has become the brightest moment in illustrated-narrative history.

Click for online
calendars and events.