Two Publishers Unite for SEPTEMBER 11

By: Eric Moro & Arnold T. Blumberg
Date: Monday, November 19, 2001

At a time when the nation has rediscovered the meaning of the word "hero," the comic book publishers who chronicle the fictional exploits of fantasy heroes have turned instead to paying tribute to the men and women who demonstrated true heroism on September 11, 2001. Marvel Comics has already released the superb showcase titled HEROES, and now DC and Dark Horse are joining forces to present their own tribute books yes, books. SEPTEMBER 11 will be a two volume release, with Dark Horse and Chaos! (as well as a number of other publishers) collaborating on Volume 1 while DC takes the lead on Volume 2.

"Each volume will include more than 200 pages, but we won't have specific page counts for another couple of weeks," says Dark Horse Media Representative Shawna Ervin-Gore. "The books will be printed in color, but some stories will be run in black-and-white, according to creator preference." There is some ambiguity concerning the possible inclusion of ad material in these books as well.

"Whether or not the books will have ads is to be determined, but I'm quite sure any ads that might run will not be typical marketing fare," says Ervin-Gore. "We may consider running subject-appropriate ads if any come to our attention." But the most important part of this is undoubtedly the content itself, and that will have a decidedly personal bent...but not quite in the way some might expect.

"When the project was first coming together, the editors who are collaborating on what is now known as Volume 1 decided
that personal reflections from writers and artists might be the most appropriate type of stories to shoot for," says Ervin-Gore. "However, once DC joined the discussions and shared some of their story ideas with us, it became clear that these ideas were as pertinent and valid as the first-person, non-fiction narrative we had been gathering."

"Many of the stories in Volume 1 can be categorized as personal reflections, either depicting the writers and artists as they watched the terrorist attacks unfold, or capturing what happened to them as time passed and the weight of these horrific events sunk in," continues Ervin-Gore. "There are other stories that are more metaphoric, depicting other circumstances of grief or loss that aren't directly related to the events of September 11, but that speak very clearly to the same emotions that have been evoked."


"A very beautiful contribution by Leland Myrick fits this description. It's a haunting, two-page story set during Victorian times about a woman waiting for her sea-captain husband to come home during a storm, and the final line of it is '... though sometimes only darkness echoes back.' It's a beautiful but eerie story."

Since the publishers have decided that these books will feature stories set in familiar comic universes, reflecting themes related to September 11 but not necessarily the events themselves, there will be a wide range of characters and settings. Ervin-Gore isn't certain about the scope of the DC volume, but "I do know that Volume 2 will feature many favorite DC characters and stories will be set everywhere from Gotham to Astro City."

SEPTEMBER 11 will be a history-making project, encompassing work from at least 150 contributors. Some of the names involved in this two volume presentation include:

Volume 1 Frank Miller, Will Eisner, Trina Robbins, Stan Sakai, P. Craig Russell, William Stout, John Cassaday, Paul Chadwick, Dave Gibbons, Bryan Talbot, Jim Valentino, Alan Moore, Tony Millionaire, Mike Mignola, Alex Maleev, Leinil Yu, and many more. Eric Drooker handles the cover art for Volume 1.

Volume 2 Will Eisner, Stan Lee, Marie Severin, Joe Kubert, Brian Azzarello, Amanda Conner, Michael Moorcock, Walter Simonson, David S. Goyer, Humberto Ramos, Neil Gaiman, Chris Bachalo, Jeph Loeb, Carlos Pacheco, Neal Adams, Glenn Fabry, Richard Corben, Brian Stelfreeze, Dave Gibbons, Phil Jimenez. Alex Ross provides the cover illustration, and Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson will contribute a special Astro City story.

With this impressive roll call, Ervin-Gore is certain the project will be a unique endeavor never before seen in the industry.

"As far as I know, there has never been a collaborative book project like this," says Ervin-Gore, "and especially a collaborative project with the ultimate goal of raising money for charity. While Dark Horse has worked with DC and other publishers on fun cross-over comics projects, we've never worked so collaboratively with so many different people on one book."

Despite the fact that books like these could be editorial nightmares, there was little guidance offered to the many contributors.

"I don't know that any of the coordinating editors issued anything in the way of a mandate," says Ervin-Gore. "We did ask that the stories be kept relatively brief so as to allow contributions from as many people as possible. Obviously we didn't want stories that were overtly hysterical or anti-Muslim. Some of the stories are angry and negative, and those are valid contributions, but we're balancing the book so that there is an even distribution."

According to Ervin-Gore, one hundred percent of the proceeds from the books will benefit six charities: the American Red Cross, the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief, the New York State World Trade Center Relief Fund, the September 11th Fund, the Survivors' Fund of the National Capital Region, and the Twin Towers Fund (which was also a recipient of proceeds from the Marvel HEROES book). Both volumes of SEPTEMBER 11 will ship on the same day in January 2002.