Graphic adaptation of the 9/11 commission report: Relevance, risks and responsibilities

In his introduction to Orientalism, Edward Said observes that 'even the simplest perception of the Arabs and Islam' by the West constitutes a 'highly politicized raucous matter.'1 This chapter aims to examine this proposition with respect to the graphic narrative version of the 9/11 Commission report, co-adapted from the written format by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon. Historical tracings of the graphic novel rarely overlook the struggle of this genre to be recognized as a serious medium; although the literary competence of comics or, in Eisner's words, 'graphic novels' was established incontrovertibly with Spiegelman's Maus, scepticism regarding the ability of this form to convey seriousness of theme remains in general public perception. These and related questions drive this chapter, such as: what challenges are likely to be faced in the graphic adaptation of a governmental report? How is the process of selection inevitable in a compression of this magnitude (585 pages of the report are compressed into 138) determined? What risks lie in the representation? Said becomes relevant here to ask whether the same attention to neutrality was deemed necessary in the representation of the Arabs in the narrative, or whether the need for acknowledging neutrality in representing Arab nationals was conditioned by the projected readership - 'American people' - of the graphic text. How is this ambivalent space recognized and negotiated by the illustrators? In what way(s) will a reader, neither Arab nor American, interpret this graphic narrative?