9/11

1. Geneva Mommsen
ENG 112 Kashtan
3/31/15
Inquiry 2
A Tribute to the Towers: Comic Style
It seems like airplanes have been all the morning and late evening news shows talk about
lately and most of it is pretty tragic. How long do you think it's been since the Malaysian flight
MH370 went missing? My jaw hit the floor when I saw that the year anniversary of its
disappearance was just under a month ago. Since then the news has aired "Breaking News"
stories such as the AirAsia Flight 8501 disappearing and being found at the bottom of the Java
Sea, multiple crashes of privately owned and operated planes, and the most recent tragedy where
in the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately drove the plane into the side of the
French Alps; 150 people including three Americans were lost in that moment. Arguably one of
the most recognized and tragic events involving a plane was the attack on September 11th 2001.
The events of this day, referred to as 9/11, live on in both infamy and the ongoing debate over
the government actions before, during, and after that tragic day. When four American
Commercial Airliners were hijacked and fatally flown into some of America's most symbolic and
iconic buildings, the Twin Towers and Pentagon, 2,977 lives were lost because of the actions of
19 radical men. American Citizens of all backgrounds and walks of life were brought together
because of the confusion and terror surrounding the attack. The historical and cultural depictions
and representations of these events have now crossed all types of media from movies and

2. memoirs to books and scholarly reports and even comics. The 9/11 Report: A Graphical
Depiction by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon has been described as being "beautifully and
compellingly written and illustrated" by Stan Lee, the former President and Chairman of Marvel
Comics (PB Works, 2015). By following the original 9/11 report nearly word for word and
combining it with extraordinarily well designed graphics that showed the stories of each of the
four flights hijacked, the events leading up to the attacks as well and the government reaction to
and handling of the situation, Jacobson and Colon have captured the culture of 9/11 that is fear
and confusion as well as the historical failures of the government in the prevention and
investigation of the first major act of terror on American soil since Pearl Harbor.
I was 6 years old when I saw a very tall building collapse in a billow of fire, smoke, and
glass on the TV and I had no idea what I was seeing, what it meant, or what weird show it was;
this was the initial confusion that almost every American had that morning regardless of age.
Being "confused" doesn't come close to covering the feeling that comes from sheer lack of
information that the government feeds to us citizens on such a "Need to know" basis and only
when it puts those in office in good light. In The 9/11 Report: A Graphical Depiction, author Sid
Jacobson took the opportunity to expose the government's failures in providing the needed
information before, during, and after the attacks of 9/11 by exploring what was known by the
government before and after the attacks but wasn’t shared with the general public. In his book 9-
11: Was There an Alternative?, author Noam Chomsky lets his readers in on a little secret, that
"Washington has never made public the evidence of its claim that Osama bin Laden was behind
the 9/11 attacks," (Chomsky, 2011). What?! You mean the government could possibly, maybe,
be not telling us the whole truth and nothing but truth, say it isn't so! Now this is not to say that
Osama bin Laden was or was not behind the attacks, just that the government has set it up that

3. they could be hiding something from the public and might be able to say "Well we never told
you 'insert information they might say here' ,". This is why the evidence collected in polls
suggests "fully a third of American respondents believe that the U.S. government and/or Israel
were behind 9/11," and the skepticism is even higher amongst Muslim populations ( Chomsky,
2011 ). The U.S. Government and the Bush Administration had seen "red flags" for years before
the 9/11 attack, including information that Osama Bin Laden was financing terrorism and held
leadership status in a group known as Al Qaeda. It was also known before 9/11/2001 that Ali
Mohammed was aware of Al Qaeda members living in the United States and he had trained men,
not necessarily Al Qaeda members, on how to hijack airplanes (Scott, 2007). This information
Artist Ernie Colon did a wonderful job of illustrating that the government had information of bin
Laden and Al Qaeda and that it was paid little to no mind at all. In Chapter 4 of The 9/11
Report: A Graphic Adaptation, titled Responses to Al Qaeda's Initial Assaults, the people seated
around the table in the CIA building have no direct eye contact, a sign of engaged listening and
focus, with each other.
So when the U.S. population was initially confused about why the attacks weren't prevented or

4. why we didn't have any warning signs, well there actually were warning signs and they were all
right there in the governments hands but weren't acted upon. You have to admire Colon and
Jacobson for "writing" and "righting" the history before 9/11 that exposes why Americans
shouldn't have been confused about why there was no warning of an impending attack. Not only
did the government not release information that there was a risk of an attack before it occurred,
but during the attack information that could have saved many lives was not communicated fast
enough or at all. The comic illustrates, accompanied by the nearly exact words of The 9/11
Report, how American Flight 77 passenger Barbara Olson called her husband, Ted Olson, then
the Solicitor General of the United States between 9:16 and 9:26 am. He then tried
unsuccessfully to reach Attorney General John Ashcroft. Had Ashcroft been reached, there
would have been a maximum of 13 minutes in which he might have been able to contact
government building to evacuate, including the Pentagon where the flight fatally crashed at
9:37am (The 9/11 Commission Report, 2011). But this was not how the government reacted,
even with ample warnings the nation was unprepared, under-informed, and therefore left to
handle the fear and sadness that would result.
Most of us think of America as powerful, strong, protected, and basically untouchable at
least militarily, however every American citizen's eyes and eyes all over the world saw the light
that day, the reality that the U.S. was and still is capable of being hurt and attacked. On that day,
the feelings of vulnerability and not knowing what was going to happen in the next minute
created an environment of terror nationwide. To illustrate just how normal a day 9/11 began as,
here is the introduction of The 9/11 Report (The 9/11 Commission Report, 2011)
"WE HAVE SOME PLANES"

5. Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United
States. Millions of men and women readied themselves for work. Some made their way to the
Twin Towers, the signature structures of the World Trade Center complex in New York City.
Others went to Arlington, Virginia, to the Pentagon. Across the Potomac River, the United States
Congress was back in session. At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, people began to line up
for a White House tour. In Sarasota, Florida, President George W. Bush went for an early
morning run.
For those heading to an airport, weather conditions could not have been better for a safe and
pleasant journey. Among the travelers were Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari, who
arrived at the airport in Portland, Maine.
There was also a lingering effect of the initial terror, if it happened once it could happen again.
People began to look at how it happened and at what points could it have been stopped. One of
the most scrutinized occurrences of the day is that airport security did indeed label the Hazmi
brothers as suspicious because they "did not have photo identification nor could he understand
English" and the only action taken was that their " checked bags were held off the plane until it
was confirmed that they had boarded the aircraft," ( The 9/11 Commission Report, 2011 ). Now
that is terrifying to think of, Airport security that is so relaxed that you can sneak a bomb or
weapon of any type onto a plane without speaking English and without a photo ID, all you have
to do is pass through a metal detector. I can't get into a bar without speaking English and having
two photo IDs! Today these policies have changed and continue to change and improve as a
result of the statistic that post 9/11, 78% of the U.S. population felt another attack was eminent
within 12 months and that airport security was the fastest and most effective way to prevent it
(Trends: Reactions, 2002) Perhaps this is one way in which the government has tried to be more
observant of possible terrorist threats. These men then boarded American Flight 77, which they
would later hijack and fatally direct into the Pentagon. When the planes began their catastrophic
damage, citizens and first responders looked on in horror and feared for their own lives as the
towers came crashing down. One first responder, a fireman said this about his reaction standing

6. outside of the 1st tower after hearing "poch-poch-poch-poch-poch-poch-poch. Floor by floor it
started poppin' out" and
as it came down, " I jumped behind a battalion car, I hid under the car, I was waitin' to die,"
(Eyewitness Accounts, 2003). People expected that death was eminent, for 2,977 people it was
and The 9/11 Report: A Graphical Depiction does this fact justice. The comic shows the frantic
phone calls made by passengers as they realized what was going on, trying to warn others or say
goodbye to loved ones. The comic also remains historically accurate during these pages by
including exact times that the calls went out and to the best of their knowledge the exact phrases.
I applaud Colon for his ability to make such a bloody and chaotic event come across as more
chilling and violent than gory and graphic in this particular scene
Again the comic remains depicts the history with incredible accuracy quoting exactly from the
actual 9/11 Report. Colon's use of primary colors in the panel above is an effective choice as it
assists the reader in focusing on the action of the hijackers rather than the hijackers or hostages
personally, making it more representative of the historical occurrences. The primary color use
can also be seen as a way of omitting the details that Colon and Jacobson were not absolutely

7. sure of, like which passengers were actually the stabbing victims and exactly what the situation
looked like. The comic also makes use of characters being in active poses, adding to the feeling
that the panels are an ongoing occurrence and that the four stories of the hijacked planes are
actually all simultaneous and accurately depicted down to the minute in sync with one another.
I don't think any other panel in the comic captured my attention as much as this one, so much so
that I actually got Goosebumps. In this case Colon has chosen to use the true colors of what he is
drawing, the empire state building with the burning towers in the back with the background of
Manhattan. This is because the details were known for certain and could be drawn with absolute
historical accuracy. The terrifying part of this panel is how stark the contrasts are. The grey and
black billowing smoke contrasts not only the light sky but the glimmer of sun off of the empire
state building. A fire raging on a sunny day that would've been beautiful and tranquil otherwise.
There is also a dramatic Irony to this drawing, the towers have not yet collapsed but most

8. readers, even the youngest, know the ultimate fate of the skyscrapers and those who were inside
and that the "evacuation" attempt, though admirable and helpful, did not save but more than the
first few floors of people.
September 11th 2001 will live on as a day of infamy, however I hope that because of The
9/11 Report: A Graphical Adaptation more people will have access to the information
surrounding the attacks; what the government hid from its citizens and how the citizens
responded to the attack. Initially most citizens were confused and terrified, I would've been too
had I been old enough to understand. Having a historically accurate representations of important
events in reader friendly formats such as a comic helps educate a larger population with more
diversity (comprehension and reading abilities) and will ultimately increase the number of
informed and change initiating people globally. I applaud Colon and Jacobson for being gutsy
and talented enough to bring into the light what a government can hide from it's citizens and to
tastefully depict one of America's most tragic days in a way that provokes thought for the actions
that occurred and the terror felt by a nation on what should've been a normal, sunny, and tranquil
day, rather than what race committed these violent acts or the bloody/ chaotic scenes that were
really witnessed.
Citations
"The 9-11 Report:A Graphic Adaptation." Teenbookguides/.PBWorks,2008. Web.31 Mar. 2015.
The 9/11 commission report: Final report of the national commission on terrorist attacks upon
the United States. Government Printing Office, 2011.
Chomsky, Noam. 9-11: Was There an Alternative?. Seven Stories Press, 2011.

9. Scott,PeterDale. The road to 9/11: Wealth,empire, and the futureof America.Univof CaliforniaPress,
2007.
"EyewitnessAccounts." 9-11Research:.WTC7, 2003. Web.31 Mar. 2015.
Huddy, Leonie, Nadia Khatib, and Theresa Capelos. "Trends: Reactions to the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001." Public Opinion Quarterly (2002): 418-450.
Jacobson,Sidney,Ernie Colón,ThomasH.Kean,andLee Hamilton. The9/11 Report:A Graphic
Adaptation.New York:Hill andWang,2006. Print.