Art Spiegelman: In the Shadow of No Towers
Although the historical origins of the comix medium are debated, most agree that it first emerged as a mass media artform during the “Yellow Journalism” newspaper wars of the early twentieth century. America’s newspapers competed with each other by publishing full-page broadsheet color comics strips in their Sunday editions. These were irreverant and fantastic strips targeted at a large adult audience, reflecting the current topics of the day, often in a surreal manner.
A century later, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Art Spiegelman tried to cope with his anxieties by returning to this broadsheet newspaper format for his new series of comix strips (Spiegelman has always preferred the word comix as a description for his medium, as do I). Originally published in foreign or minor U.S. newspapers, these strips have now been collected in book form, In the Shadow of No Towers.
Essentially, the book is a brief 10-page comix memoir about 9/11 packaged in a deluxe oversize format, supplemented with some examples of the great old classic color newspaper strips such as Little Nemo in Slumberland. (The whole book is a very nice package to be sure, but rather an expensive one for such a brief essay.)
Shadow of No Towers is a fine example of how comix can be used as a means of self-expression. Each of the ten big pages is a separate interpretation of the effect of the 9/11 attacks on Spiegelman’s psyche. A resident of lower Manhattan, he gives his first-hand account of that terrible chaotic day, including his frantic search to retrieve his young daughter from her downtown school. Later, in the days following the attack Spiegelman confesses his temporary addiction to Internet conspiracy theories, and his growing fear of both Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush. As in Maus, Spiegelman portrays himself as a frazzled neurotic artist trying to cope with the harsher realities of the world.
Each page is constructed using a mish-mash of styles, combining everything from modern computer-generated images with those based on the 1906 Kin-der-Kids strips of Lyonel Feininger. References to classic comix strips appear frequently, with Spiegelman sometimes morphing his character into those from past eras such as Happy Hooligan and Little Nemo. Panel design is fluid, so that some pages need to be read horizontally and vertically. One very funny sequence shows Bush & Co. running off to war upside-down on the ceiling of some panels – it’s a terrific image and perfectly conveys Spiegelman’s point about the misguided military actions of the White House administration.
While I enjoyed Towers tremendously as an example of pure comix, my reaction to Spiegelman’s argument was mixed. The sections of the book that deal directly with Spiegelman and his family are very interesting and well done, but when he tries to expand his scope to the wider political arena I felt that the results were less successful. His analysis of public affairs is not particularly sharp or original, and the presentation of these ideas does not really work well. But this is a minor quibble – I’m just delighted that after a long break, Spiegelman is making great comix again.
Reviewed by Patrick Lawlor
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