BBC NEWS: Comic book veterans take on 9/11

BBC NEWS: Comic book veterans take on 9/11: "Five years after the attacks on New York and Washington, and two years after the 9/11 Report detailing it became a surprise bestseller, the events of 11 September 2001 are being put before the public again - this time as a comic book.

On the face of it, the 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation looks much like a super-hero comic - significantly thicker, and published on high-quality paper, but in a visual and storytelling style that will be familiar to anyone who grew up reading Superman or Spiderman.

That is no coincidence.

The two men behind the adaptation, writer Sid Jacobson and artist Ernie Colon, are grand old men of the genre who have held top positions at both of America's mainstream super-hero comic book houses, DC and Marvel.

The effect is initially jarring.

If many Americans were not ready to see the struggle aboard Flight 93 turned into a film, or were doubtful about Nicolas Cage playing a police officer trapped in the World Trade Center in an Oliver Stone movie, how much more upsetting it must be to see a plane slam into the Pentagon with a traditional comic-book 'BLAMM!'.

But there will be rewards for those willing to give a chance to the 9/11 report rendered as a comic book - or graphic adaptation, as its highbrow literary publisher Hill and Wang calls it."