Entertainment, Books - Air Force Times

9/11 — the graphic novel

Still haven’t found the time to wade through all 600-plus pages of “The 9/11 Commission Report”?

The final report on the investigation into the 2001 terrorist attacks has been in bookstores since summer 2004, but if you’ve waited this long to tackle it, go ahead and hold out a few more months.

Tackle the comic book instead.

The exhaustive report debuts in comic form this September as “The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation.” The term of art here is “graphic novel” -- think of books like Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” and Frank Miller’s “Sin City.”

The men behind the adaption are no slouches, either. We’re talking Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, two of the comic industry’s powerhouses.

Jacobson was managing editor and editor in chief for Harvey Comics -- where he created Richie Rich, the ultimate oh-so-cute child of privilege -- and was executive editor at Marvel Comics.

Colon, who handled artist duties on “The 9/11 Report,” worked at Harvey, Marvel and DC Comics. During his tenure at DC, Colon oversaw production for legendary comic heroes including Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Blackhawk and The Flash. At Marvel, he oversaw Spider-Man.

But their latest work isn’t coming out of one of the great comic houses. Instead, mainstream book publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux is publishing the work under its nonfiction imprint, Hill & Wang. FSG is set to publish two other nonfiction graphic novels this fall under the same imprint, biographies of President Reagan and Malcom X.

Few images of the Sept. 11 graphic novel have leaked out, but those we’ve seen show a realistic treatment of the events surrounding the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the struggle aboard Flight 93.

Looking back on Sept. 11, it’s often difficult to keep the sequence of events straight, with four hijacked jets airborne and heading to four different fates. In this, Jacobson and Colon use the comic book style to take readers through a side-by-side, two-page timeline of each plane’s path.

The illustrations of the action aboard Flight 93 are particularly striking, conveying the tension of the passengers’ fight with the terrorists at a level on par with the recently released film “United 93.”

One-fourth the size of the original commission report, the 144-page graphic novel is expected to cost $30 in hardcover, $16.95 in paperback.