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CNN Live At Daybreak

September 11th Tragedy Inspires Comic Book

Aired November 07, 2001 - 08:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: You probably never expected that the September 11th tragedy would inspire a comic book, but it did. And it's so popular, the comic now is in to its own second printing.

Here is our own Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chances are you've never seen a fireman wearing a cape, and no, firemen can't swing from buildings, they can't break a boulder with their bare hands, but they braved collapsing concrete, and for that, they are getting the superhero treatment in their very own comic book.

JOE QUESADA, EDITOR IN CHIEF, MARVEL COMICS: Really the mythical hero is based on our ideal of what a hero is supposed to be, and now we are watching it happen in flesh and blood.

MOOS: From flesh and blood to paper and ink.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's me.

MOOS: Is that you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good artwork.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's muscular and good looking --

MOOS: Muscular and good looking, yes, but there's nothing comic about this book. Even Captain America is grieving over New York's smoldering skyline.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love that. I put that on my mall.

MOOS: Here at Midtown Comics, heroes sold faster than any regular comic. The folks at Marvel Comics dreamed up the idea just days after September 11th. Overall 100 of the best known illustrators and writers answered the call to create a comic book with proceeds going to the Twin Towers fund.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody's piece came from their heart.

MOOS: This was Tom Palmer's contribution.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We worked in solitude, I mean, you didn't know what the other guy was doing.

MOOS: This other guy, industry great Neal Adams, including Rudy the superhero.

NEAL ADAMS, ILLUSTRATOR, MARVEL COMICS: The drawing of Giuliani to me is the centerpiece of the whole thing, and his strength, and his concentration, and everything about that careworn face is, to me, what this whole thing is all about.

MOOS: As for including the plane heading for the Trade Center.

ADAMS: More people have said, it put a lump in my throat than have objected, so.

MOOS: Marvel's editor-in-chief drew one of the illustrations of a firefighter mourning over a fallen comrade's hat. Firefighters thought it was drawn from this photograph of a real fireman who lost his captain, but actually a Marvel staffer had posed for the drawing.

There is a woman looking over the field of debris, modeled after the more pastoral field in the famous Andrew Wyatt painting.

Even the usually raging Hulks makes respectful appearance.

And then there is the one by a Croatian artists, showing passengers rushing the hijackers of United flight 93.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've seen people cringe when they see it, cry when they see it. It's just, to me, it's probably one of the most potent pictures.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is deep.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is nothing we can to stop what happened to us, but that was great, what they did.

MOOS: Remember what they used to say about Superman. But bravery in the face of mortality is what makes these rescuers supermen.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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