ESSENTIAL // 6.06.02

9-11 EMERGENCY RELIEF
by Dave Potter

9-11: EMERGENCY RELIEF
Various Artists
Alternative Comics
STAR14976
190 pages, US$14.95

After a major news event, I find that there is a consistent publishing cycle that books written about the news event follow. There's a first round of quickie books, the ones that don't always have a lot of depth, but offer that fiery in-your-face lack of objectivity that you can't achieve with the passage of time. They're more likely to be the attention-getting books, fueled by emotion rather than analysis.

Then there's always that second group of books that are able to examine a subject with objectivity and thoroughness that you can't get when you're still so close to what's happened. They invariably come later, and bring with them the benefits of time and distance, of reflection and analysis. They may not fly off the shelves like the quickies of the first round, but they tend to be more fully developed, more detailed accounts, driven by the clinical need to reason instead of react.

Alternative Comics' 9-11: EMERGENCY RELIEF definitely is a highlight of the former category, a powerful and emotion-filled book, and years from now will be a window on that emotional and turbulent time period following the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11th. It is so effective and gripping in its emotional response that I doubt any other book about the experience in this medium will surpass it. Moreover, it's powerful enough that I think it will stand up as one of the great works about the event from any medium.

There were several benefit books that came out in the weeks and months following the attacks, and it might have been easy to miss picking up this one. I'm not denigrating any of the other works that were done and put out by many other artists and publishing companies, several of which were moving collections in their own right. But 9-11: EMERGENCY RELIEF is definitely the best of the best, and deserves to be held up as a classic.

This is a challenging book to review or explain. There's no throughline in terms of story or creators, only in the book's general theme. What you are presented with is a series of vignettes by artists about their own experiences on the day of the attack and the days and weeks immediately following. The contributions vary in length from a single page to an extended story over several pages. You'll recognize some of the artists and doubtless will not have heard of others, but every piece is genuine, emotional and makes an impact on you as a reader.

You'll see Jeff Smith's piece on being overseas in Europe when the attacks happened, the generosity and sympathy he received as an American abroad, and how he bought his first American flag. You'll see Brian Clopper, an elementary school teacher in the DC area, unable to tell his students about the tragedy and watching as his class dwindles rapidly from parents rushing to pick up their children. Mike Manley recounts an event many have probably consciously tried to forget: the immediate, knee-jerk reaction against Arab-Americans in the country immediately after the attacks.

And that's only the tip of the iceberg. I guarantee that you won't be able to read it all in one sitting. The emotional experience from reading 9-11 was so overpowering for me that it took me three evenings to get through it.

Art exists in no small part to contextualize and frame human experience in a manner that others can relate to and understand, even if they haven't experienced it themselves. While the events of September 11th are still fresh for those alive and old enough to remember them, there is an entire generation growing up that is too young to understand and will someday find a window back into that time through works such as September 11th. That window will also prove valuable for those of us who watched the tragedy unfold: while time has helped to heal our own wounds, it has also diluted the experience in our minds. These works of art were produced at a time when the emotions were all still very new and raw. Those impressions are immortalized here, and thankfully, in a manner that is neither sensationalistic nor insensitive.

But more than being an important and emotional work of sequential art, 9-11: EMERGENCY RELIEF is also a benefit book for the American Red Cross. Buying copies of this book helps fund their relief efforts AND gives you something really cool to read and put on your bookshelf. Just because the initial disaster recovery is over and the hype surrounding the numerous benefit efforts has fallen quiet, don't believe for a second that your dollars will be wasted in supporting this good cause.

Anyone who doesn't believe in the value of comics should be given a copy of this book, and quickly. It is a powerful work for a medium which is often mistakenly portrayed as backward and juvenile, and is the perfect rebuttal to any callous dismissal of our favorite artform.

9-11 EMERGENCY RELIEF is available from Alternative Comics. It's priced at $14.95 with a Star Code of STAR14976. If your retailer can't or won't order it for you with that information, we suggest you find a better store.

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