Remembering September 11 Through Comics

As a child, the Sunday newspaper was my favorite because the comic section was much bigger, and every comic was in full color. Artists were free to tell stories that could not be told in a confined four panel layout. Some comics, like the one panel comic The Lockhorns remained one panel — but there were three different one panel comics instead of one and it was still beautifully colorful. This was before newspaper comics were posted online and put into full color, as is the case with Doonesbury and others.

Once in awhile, newspaper comic strip artists get together, so to speak, and agree to all do their comics to a certain theme on a particular day. For example, when the comic Blondie celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary, numerous characters from other comics “visited,” so to speak, to wish them well on their anniversary. Never mind that the characters hadn’t really aged at all in seventy-five years — it was the spirit of the thing that mattered.

This Sunday is the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack that rocked the United States and placed it on a high state of possible terrorist awareness on which it has been since then. In the ten years that have passed there have been many tributes to the people who perished in the attacks — including one which took place in the newspaper comic section only a couple of months after the attack itself.

Since the anniversary is on a Sunday, comic strip artists are once again collaborating and coming together for an anniversary tribute — the comics page will be in honor of the victims that lost their lives to the terrorist attack.

Getting attacked in this manner is no joking manner, of course. The comics are largely taking on a somber tone, having characters visit graveyards and paying tribute to the heroic deeds of firefighters and first responders. For children who were born after the attack or who were extremely young when it happened, this is a superb opportunity for them to learn about it in a child friendly environment. They can see that it is possible, when the circumstances call for it, for the country to put aside differences and discuss this tragic event and how it impacts us today.