What I'm Reading -- The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon

Two veterans of the comics industry decided to create a graphic novel version of the 568 page 9/11 Commission Report. Every time I read about this somewhere it seems like I see a new controversy over it, so let me take care of those right away.

1. There is no bias here by Jacobson and Colon. They are just putting the original report in a more readable format. This is a paraphrase of the whole report and the authors did try to quote it as often as they could. Also, the Foreward is written by the Chair and Vice Chair of the 9/11 Commission, so this is a legitimate document.
2. This graphic novel is not intended to fix any of the problems of the commission. This is just a digested version so any biases and mistakes the commission made comes out in this book as well.
3. Some have said that the drawings are made to make some people look better than others and that there is some inherit racism in how the terrorists are drawn. I did not pick this up at all, but others may see it differently.

I was incredibly excited when I heard about this and I was not let down. Reading many of the details of the 9/11 Commission Report is incredibly interesting. The art is quite good and helps move along the commentary. They also organize the information so that it is easier to understand. In one section, the reader can see a timeline of September 11, 2001 from the perspective of each hijacked plane. The authors cover this sensitive material with great maturity. This is a great read, though it is obviously sad and alarming.