Product Reviews9-11 Emergency Relief (Alternative Comics January 2002)

9-11 Emergency Relief by Alternative Comics Cartoonists

Reviewed by: School Library Journal

Adult/High School-More than 60 sequential art pieces address the responses of their creators to the events of September 11, 2001, in a collection conceived as a fund-raiser for the American Red Cross. Harvey Pekar, Jeff Smith, Jessica Abel, Ted Rall, Peter Kuper, and Will Eisner are among the dozens of creative artists who share their feelings, thoughts, and activities in the wake of the destruction of the WorldTradeCenter and the other airline attacks on that day. While some, including Sam Hester, Josh Neufield, and James Kochalka, provide simple and explicit reports of having an ordinary day in the life of a working artist turn into an extraordinary confrontation with politics, bloodshed, and emotional upheaval, others offer complex tales and scenarios fraught with psychological peril or personal responsibility. Brian Clopper spent the day teaching elementary school students whom he had been told not to inform of national and world events, while Jenny Gonzalez, newly released from a psychiatric hospital, had to contend with her own breakdown and dental surgery. Most of the pieces here provide reportorial accounts, but a few offer brilliant metaphor instead. With so many viewpoints, the surprise is that the collection as a whole is even in quality and absorbing from beginning to end or as an anthology to be consumed in any order. This is important for school and public library collections, as well as for book discussions and auxiliary reading in social science curricula. -Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

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