ERNIE COLON ON THE 9/11 REPORT: A GRAPHIC ADAPTATION

[MattBrady]

by Daniel Robert Epstein

I’ve read comic book adaptations of the unlikeliest sort over the years. From the Old Testament to Ivanhoe to Crime and Punishment, but there has never been anything like The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon.

Jacobson and Colon first worked together on Casper and Richie Rich and now the long time collaborators have taken on the Herculean task of adapting the report in the hopes that it will get young people to understand everything that went on that fateful day. Colon is one of the great luminaries of the comic book industry - he started out working for Harvey Comics and has since then has worked on such diverse titles as Magnus: Robot Fighter, Damage Control and Arak over the span of decades, but this is his finest hour.

I had a chance to talk with Colon about his latest work.

Newsarama: I read that you were the one that first came up with the idea of adapting the 9/11 report.

Ernie Colon: Yeah, I was reading an article in The New York Times that said that Ron Howard and his partner [Brian Grazer] were contemplating doing a film based on the 9/11 Commission Report. One of the reasons they were contemplating it was because it was very feasible since it was public domain. Coincidentally, I had just tried to read the report and found it very difficult because I couldn’t keep track of all the names, places and events. Sid Jacobson and I are in the business of clarifying things, so I called him up, he thought it was a great idea and we took off from there.

NRAMA: What did Sid originally think?

EC: He just jumped up and down and thought it was a terrific idea because he had tried to read the report himself. Now, of course, he’s read it six or seven times to adapt it.

NRAMA: Did you help turn the book into a script?

EC: Sid did it on his own. More than 95 percent of it is straight from the book.

NRAMA: What were the 9/11 scripts like?

EC: It was a panel by panel description of what was felt should go in there. Of course it changes as we go along because as I interpret the panels some of them become more important than others.

NRAMA: Have you ever adapted something like this?

EC: The things that I’ve done closest to this were classics like Treasure Island, The Odyssey, Call of the Wild, Frankenstein. All of those I did for Boy’s Life years ago.

NRAMA: Was this in any way similar to doing that or was it totally new?

EC: I think in some ways it was similar in that it was illustrated rather than the Casper animated approach.

We had to keep our own politics and opinions out of it, whereas when you do something like an adaptation of Treasure Island you can draw the characters any way you want to and make them grotesque. But you certainly can’t do that in an adaptation like this.

NRAMA: Why was it important for you guys to keep your politics out of it?

EC: We wanted to remain faithful to what the report had to say and not inject any aspects of our own opinions into it. It had to be a completely faithful adaptation of the report.

NRAMA: Did you finish the book and then find someone to put it out, or was a publisher interested from the beginning?

EC: We brought it to a fellow named Roger Burlage who is a film producer in Hollywood. He funded it and through him we went to publishers and Farrar, Straus and Giroux seemed to be the best publisher. The publisher is actually Hill & Wang which is a subsidiary of Farrar, Straus and Giroux and the fellow in charge is Thomas LeBien. He saw the value immediately so we didn’t really have to go hunting all over the place.

NRAMA: Were you influenced by anything other than the report for the book?

EC: No, I have a real craft to fall back on. I’ve been doing this most of my adult life. So I just tried to be as clear as possible because the whole idea for this was to clarify some things and one of the clarifications was the timeline, which was Sid’s idea because when you’re reading the report by the time you get to page 50 you’ve forgotten the names and the places and the events that happened on page nine. Whereas we have a timeline in the book and in the hardcover there’s a fold out timeline that shows that shows what was happening at whatever time.

NRAMA: Were any parts more difficult to visualize than others?

EC: Yeah, here again there’s difficulty in trying to figure out what to illustrate that actually happened and yet try not to offend or be exploitative in terms of sensational looking drawings. But still, you have to depict some of the violence otherwise you’re leaving out an essential part of what made this such a terrible happening.

NRAMA: Do you feel that this adaptation will get into the hands of a younger, or at least a wider crowd than the original report?

EC: We’re hoping that there’s a wide range. But I think by presenting it visually you do get younger people but we’re hoping that adults will see it as a serious representation of the events and of the report itself. I suspect that it’s going to be mainly adults who will pick up the books though.

NRAMA: Given the publicity this has received, are you doing a book tour?

EC: Yeah, we’ve already started that. Sid appeared at the San Diego Con, I couldn’t make it. We’re going to be at the New School sometime in September on a panel with [President of New School University] Bob Kerry and possibly one of the commission members. One of the commission members, Slade Gordon, appeared at the San Diego Convention and said some very nice things about the book and of course two of the commission members wrote an introduction to the book.

NRAMA: Where were you on 9/11?

EC: I was on Long Island in an office with some friends and we heard it over the radio. I was under the impression it was an accident because I remember my Mom was a witness to the bomber that flew into the Empire State Building [on July 28, 1945] so I was convinced that it was a similar accident. It was only when the second plane hit that we understood that something was up.

NRAMA: Do you read many comic books now?

EC: Oh no, sorry to say that I’m not a comic book reader. I have no interest in them mainly because they concentrate on something that has never interested me, which is superheroes. When I worked at Marvel and DC I said that right out and I wasn’t too popular.

NRAMA: What’s your impression of the comic book industry at this point?

EC: It had changed incredibly because the sales of comics are not good at all and haven’t been in years but they’re making a lot of money from ancillary products like movies, television, animation and videogames. The comics themselves are there just to present the characters and keep them out in the public eye. The public isn’t buying the comics; they’re going to the movies. When I was growing up and well into my adulthood, comics worked for a very wide range of ages. Now you only have this one narrow area and I read recently that 80 to 90 percent of the audience is male. I suspect it’s more like 98 percent. Girls and women aren’t interested in these snarling brute superheroes. At Harvey, we had a 45 percent girl audience which has never happened since. I think Archie may have still have that percentage but nobody else does and I think it is ridiculous to write off half your audience.

NRAMA: Are you working on anything else?

EC: Right now we’re doing a sequel to the book, which we haven’t titled yet. But it will be about the effect of the aftermath of America’s war on terror for the same publisher.

The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation is 144 pages and priced at $16.95 and was released this week. It is also being serialized at Slate.com.

[House Of Me]

I kinda wanna read that.

[Rockin' Rich]

Ernie's a real pro. He and Sid did a great job.

Too bad about the attacks on the project from wingnuts, but that just reinforces its value, imho.

[jaredgood1]

Interesting project. Of course, all the crackpots who buy into all the conspiracy theories are going to scream "indoctrination".

I’d actually also like to see this done with the Warren Commission.

[Agent Wax]

cant say I will be buying this.
Not interested at all.
Gotta say though, for someone being interviewed by a comic website, he trashed comics pretty hard. Ah well.
-wax-
xxx

[Billy Tucci]

Sounds like an amazing project, incredibly bold and brave. I cannot wait to pick it up and think it should be in every classroom in every school. I hope this is huge. Ernie is one of my all time favorite artists.

Congrats guys!

[Nat Gertler]

This book is getting a lot of attention and moving a lot of copies -- and it's proof that you don't have to be one of the hot young "names" to have a success. Both Sid and Ernie are long, long-time veterans of this biz, both talented folks (and having had some dealings with both of them, both good folks to deal with.) Anyone out there wanting to reach a mainstream audience should consider the time-tested veterans of comics.

(On a trivia-oriented note: this is not the first time that Ernie's drawn the destruction of the World Trade Center; the Twin Towers were wrecked in Damage Control #1, a good humorous comic book that came out well before the tragic events of 2001.)

[CoreyB]

Originally Posted by Agent Wax

cant say I will be buying this.
Not interested at all.
Gotta say though, for someone being interviewed by a comic website, he trashed comics pretty hard. Ah well.
-wax-
xxx

He obviously loves comics, he's had an immense comic book career. He didn't trash them. He's not into super-hero comics and doesn't understand why most of the industry is ignoring half of their potential audience. He might've generalized a bit, but it sounds pretty accurate to me.

[CoreyB]

Originally Posted by Nat Gertler

(On a trivia-oriented note: this is not the first time that Ernie's drawn the destruction of the World Trade Center; the Twin Towers were wrecked in Damage Control #1, a good humorous comic book that came out well before the tragic events of 2001.)

Oh wow, you're right! I completely forgot about that! Good memory!

[Agent Wax]

Originally Posted by CoreyB

He obviously loves comics, he's had an immense comic book career. He didn't trash them. He's not into super-hero comics and doesn't understand why most of the industry is ignoring half of their potential audience. He might've generalized a bit, but it sounds pretty accurate to me.

Eh, i dont know, these days, more than ever before, theres a heck of a lot more out there for comics than just Superhero books. Sounded to me like someone giving outdated opinions, that he hasnt bothered to confirm.
Much respect for the mans career, just giving my 2 cents.

[johnchrist]

Ok, THIS I would read, at first I thought this would be an adaptation of that new movie coming out, a movie which I am boycotting, as well as I did with that Flight (whatever #) movie. But then, I am against using propoganda to make money on the poor dead souls of our fellow citizens. The 911 report, however, was designed as a look at everythign that went into the disaster, THIS I can stomach.

[kross29]

damn comics took a hard it in this interview.

as for 911 i'm glad all this stuff is coming out. hopefully it will bring some closure.

my thing is why aren't there alot things about the damage of hurricane katrina. as a former new orleanian, i'm sad that there aren't tha many things focusing on it. new orleans is still mostly destroyed. the french quarter and some of the downtown areas are fixed buy 80% of the city still looks like a hurricane hit it. the levees are still crap, thank god no hurricanes have come by this year.

no-one talks about the horrors most of the people who were left behind went through. all people focus on are the criminals, which were in the minority compared to just the average men and women who went through and are still going through crap. 2 million people were directly affected by this and we get nothing. some of us fled only to get caught up in hurricane rita.

one of my friends went through hell, the stuff he described still hasn't made press time.

it just saddens me how some tragedies are elevated above others.

[Agent Wax]

Originally Posted by johnchrist

Ok, THIS I would read, at first I thought this would be an adaptation of that new movie coming out, a movie which I am boycotting, as well as I did with that Flight (whatever #) movie. But then, I am against using propoganda to make money on the poor dead souls of our fellow citizens. The 911 report, however, was designed as a look at everythign that went into the disaster, THIS I can stomach.

I really dont understand this mindset, about people boycotting movies like Flight 93. It would be different if the movies were chock full of political motivations, trying to sway you one way or another, or if the families were against the movie being made, but Flight 93 was not only accepted and encouraged by the familes of the victims, but also was a story about the people nothing else.
I saw it and it felt unlike any other movie i have ever seen in my life. I was moved, touched, angered and saddened, but overall glad that i had a chance to share in their amazing story. There was very little made up dialogue, exact phone conversations were used from the victims families, and messages that were left on answering machines before the plane went down.
This movie wasnt a hollywood blockbuster, and cant really be called propaganda used to make money at the expense of anyone. I urge anyone to check it out, you cant really understand until you've seen it.
-wax-
xXx

[CoreyB]

Originally Posted by Agent Wax

Eh, i dont know, these days, more than ever before, theres a heck of a lot more out there for comics than just Superhero books. Sounded to me like someone giving outdated opinions, that he hasnt bothered to confirm.
Much respect for the mans career, just giving my 2 cents.

There's definitely plenty of room for debate, but I think saying he "trashed comics pretty hard" is really over-stating and even mis-representing what he said.

[AnthonyL]

Oh no, sorry to say that I’m not a comic book reader. I have no interest in them mainly because they concentrate on something that has never interested me, which is superheroes. When I worked at Marvel and DC I said that right out and I wasn’t too popular.

That's a shame, there is a ton of variety being published from all sorts of publishers. It's just a shame that the general public thinks there is nothing but spandex and superheroes out there.

There is a lot more to enjoy than that.

Anthony L

[immortus]

Originally Posted by Nat Gertler

This book is getting a lot of attention and moving a lot of copies -- and it's proof that you don't have to be one of the hot young "names" to have a success.

Yeah, you just need to hop on the 9/11 bandwagon!

You know, if Thunderbolts changed its title to '9/11', sales would rocket upwards immediately.

[xomanowarfan]

I say why not. Hollywood has already made two movies about the subject. I have to say of all the different avenues that have looked back at the event, that black cover spider-man felt the most right.

[Kolimar]

This is a very good idea and I love Ernie Colon but the art looks like crap here. Mostly because of the colors but Ernie's pencils don't look as good I expected. Particularly the characters. Objects look decent enough but I'd have to see more.

[TimXSinclair]

This should have been done in 3-D so everyone could read it through rose-colored glasses.

I would have been more impressed if they had done an adaptation of Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by CoreyB

He obviously loves comics,

He sounded more like he loves his comics, the kind of comics he used to do in his era of comics. If he truly loved comics he'd still be reading which he admitted he doesn't. There are lots of comics for people that doesn't enjoy superheroes and he seems to have no idea.

Originally Posted by CoreyB

he's had an immense comic book career. He didn't trash them. He's not into super-hero comics and doesn't understand why most of the industry is ignoring half of their potential audience. He might've generalized a bit, but it sounds pretty accurate to me.

Only if you start interpreting what he meant and try to fill in the blanks giving him a better context. And all that with a LOT of good will. What he said applies mostly to Marvel and DC. And even they have more to offer than just superheroes (admittedly DC more than Marvel). What about Image and Dark Horse and lots of other publishers? What about manga? And it's not just a question of offer but demand also. At the very least he gave a bad reply to a good question. Instead of that he could have simply said he wasn't up to date on the state of the industry. Or explained a little more. He may not have meant it that way (I kinda doubt that) but what he said, the way he said it, sounded a lot like trashing the industry.

[Kolimar]

Originally Posted by Agent Wax

Eh, i dont know, these days, more than ever before, theres a heck of a lot more out there for comics than just Superhero books. Sounded to me like someone giving outdated opinions, that he hasnt bothered to confirm.

That's exactly what I thought. He sounded like a regular uninformed civilian, an outsider, not a comic book creator. Perhaps there was touch of bitterness there. When was the last time he worked for DC or Marvel? Early '90s? Like I said, he admitted he doesn't read comics. That alone casts his whole opinion in a different light.

[SouthtownKid]

I like the idea of a clear accounting of the events and timeline (as they were recorded in the report), so this comic has me interested.

What I don't like is the idea of dramatizing the events and people involved, with the goal of creating a gripping, tear-jerking movie, which I think is completely tasteless. So I'm stearing far clear of the Hollywood movie adaptation of events.

On the subject of Colon's love/non-love of comics: Yes, there is more variety in American comic book material than at any point in my comic-reading life. But it is still overwhelmingly super-hero dominated compared to the comic industries of many other countries. I love super-hero comics, but even I feel despair for our industry sometimes. I don't interpret Colon's disappointment in the industry as hatred for the artform. In no way does not reading comics now equal not liking comics.

Admittedly, he could give comics another look now and see how thing might have improved since his last look, but the fact that he himself has created this comic -- something along the lines of material interesting to him -- shows he still has interest in the medium.

[Midas]

I have this. I've only read the first few chapters but can safely say that it was worth buying and really everyone should own a copy. It's not "entertaining" like the Hollywood movies that have come out. It's strictly informative. It boils down and makes digestable a very thick and hard-to-read government report. You read it to gain a deeper understanding of what happend on that fateful day.

I would highly recommend it.

[WebHobbit]

Wow. What a friggin' bummer. I WAS an Ernie Colon fan too. This book looks interesting but the negative comments about something I love just left me kinda sad.

Bummer.

I love comics. I love super-hero comics.

Colon's comments sound like someone who isn't particularly pro-comics in any form. Why did he even bother producing one if it's all so pathetic and pointless with it's tiny readership??

Geez.

[Midas]

Originally Posted by WebHobbit

Wow. What a friggin' bummer. I WAS an Ernie Colon fan too. This book looks interesting but the negative comments about something I love just left me kinda sad.

Bummer.

I love comics. I love super-hero comics.

Colon's comments sound like someone who isn't particularly pro-comics in any form. Why did he even bother producing one if it's all so pathetic and pointless with it's tiny readership??

Geez.

He barely did. Notice how it wasn't solicited through Diamond/the direct market (at least as far as I remember). It's more of a book than a comic. It's only being sold through that channel.