In the Shadow of No Towers

For Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Maus, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were both highly personal and intensely political. In the Shadow of No Towers, his first new book of comics since the groundbreaking Maus, is a masterful and moving account of the events and aftermath of that tragic day.
Spiegelman and his family bore witness to the attacks in their lower Manhattan neighborhood: his teenage daughter had started school directly below the towers days earlier, and they had lived in the area for years. But the horrors they survived that morning were only the beginning for Spiegelman, as his anguish was quickly displaced by fury at the U.S. government, which shamelessly co-opted the events for its own preconceived agenda.
He responded in the way he knows best. In an oversized, two-page-spread format that echoes the scale of the earliest newspaper comics (which Spiegelman says brought him solace after the attacks), he relates his experience of the national tragedy in drawings and text that convey—with his singular artistry and his characteristic provocation, outrage, and wit—the unfathomable enormity of the event itself, the obvious and insidious effects it had on his life, and the extraordinary, often hidden changes that have been enacted in the name of post-9/11 national security and that have begun to undermine the very foundation of American democracy.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Not quite what I expected
I thought this would be more of a story of the artist’s personal experience & less political. I don’t disagree with his politics, but it was still somewhat of a disappointment. Spiegelman’s artwork is always amazing, often moving & thought provoking. I was really moved by his quote: “I finally understand why some Jews didn’t leave Berlin right after Kristallnacht!” I also enjoyed the section on old political cartoons

2 Stars Dull
In a small series of comic strips originally designed to be printed as large, two-page newspaper spreads, Spiegelman illustrates his personal experiences of the attack on the World Trade Center. He focuses mainly upon four themes: his concern over the safety of his daughter who was attending a school right near the towers, his growing paranoia over the government, the funny but disturbing display of blind patriotism that arose amongst the US population and media following the tragedy, and, lastly, how slow he is at producing comic strips.

Given the emotions still surrounding 9/11, it would take extraordinarily bad writing to fail to get any reaction from a reader, and perhaps that is why Spiegelman is so lazy and sloppy here. I’m sure he felt emotions while he was writing this, and he DOES do a good job of making the reader feel some of his anxiety over his daughter’s safety, and some of his anecdotes are interesting (his never-used TV interview about how “American” 9/11 made him feel — it didn’t — is quite humourous). But overall the writing lacks direction, is amateurish and hackneyed, and surprisingly ineffective at eliciting a strong emotional reaction from the reader given the subject matter. It usually wasn’t so much Spiegelman’s writing that made me feel emotions, but the memories it drew from inside of me (like the images of people falling from the towers). Without those memories, it was just history.

The problem may in part be due to the format of his stories. In each spread we tend to get a glimpse of a storyline, then we get to the next strip and we see basically the same glimpse of a storyline with much repetition and little progression, rendering his storytelling completely choppy. It reminded me of newscasts where they keep repeating the same “coming up” message over and over again, and when they finally get to the story itself, it winds up being even shorter and less informative than any of the multiple previews you sat through. And sometimes he doesn’t even go that far. To illustrate, Spiegelman repeatedly tells you how paranoid he felt. But he does not get his feeling of paranoia across. He doesn’t make the reader feel any of his paranoia or really show its effects on his life (other than some lost sleep). And it comes across as completely matter-of-fact. He might as well be telling us that he ate a salami sandwich for lunch yesterday without even describing its taste, his hunger, etc.

Some of his artwork is interesting as he draws upon classic strips from the early 20th century for inspiration, but this technique rarely adds any depth to the story’s content. It is interesting style, but that’s all it is — style. It makes for pretty pictures, but fails to redeem the text.

Overall, Spiegelman has nothing new to say on the subject of 9/11. It has all been done far more competently and compellingly elsewhere by numbers too great to count. Ultimately lightweight, Shadow is printed on nice, thick boards to create the illusion that it is far more substantial than it is. It includes reprints of several interesting vintage comic strips which are included both to allow the reader less versed in comics to see where Spiegelman drew stylistic inspiration, and to pad out the books extremely small page count.

5 Stars A great way to understand a tormented artst…
I used “In the Shadow” as a segment in a group project for an undergrad presentation on “Maus” to further understand and psycho analyze Spiegelman’s mental conflict. While short, the art is dense and the possibilities for analyzation are endless…leaving you with a worthwhile experience. Anyone who is a fan of Spiegelman’s work, or anyone who wants to see how Spiegelman uses an event that is in his personal history (not his past generation’s) then definitely check out “In the Shadow”…you won’t be disappointed.

3 Stars “I finally understand why some Jews didn’t leave Berlin after Kristallnacht”—Art Spiegelman
Before this book, I had never picked up a book on 9/11, being that I assumed they are all so politically biased (be it one extreme or another). There are also so many of them, some released very soon after the attack. It is frustrating to look at the “new books” section of the local library and see ½ the shelves filled with 9/11 books. I couldn’t help myself with this curio, however. I am a fan of history and comics. Browsing through the large, thick, colorful cardboard panels of “In the Shadow of No Towers”, I saw a vintage newspaper page on the shooting of President McKinley (the author doesn’t elaborate on why this was used, must be the terrorism theme, in this case anarchism) and what looked like on first glance a vintage comic on the Titanic (it turned out to be an even older comic). I knew this book was right up my alley. Having never read Maus, I wasn’t sure what to expect but looked forward to checking it out.

It didn’t take long to find the politically-biased stuff I dreaded.. On the very first plate: “In those first few days after 9/11 I got lost constructing conspiracy theories about my government’s complicity in what had happened that would have done a Frenchman proud. (My susceptibility for conspiracy goes back a long ways but had reached its previous peak after the 2000 elections).” In fact, in his “…No Towers” comics that make up the first 10 panels of the 18-plate book, the author reveals a preoccupation with the 2000 elections. At one point he calls George W. Bush that “creature in the White House” (7). This book came out before the 2004 elections, so one can only wonder if the author has yet to let 2000 go. On panel 7, he has a red/blue zone look at the 2000 elections “the one that put the loser in office,” with what I’m guessing is the percentage of the popular vote showing Gore the winner (of course, it is not the popular vote that determines the winner).

The “…No Towers” strips are very aesthetically interesting with computer images mixed with colorful comic artwork. The author relives his experiences during the tragedy, getting his daughter from the UN school near the towers, a run-in with a predictable crazy lady living on the street, etc. He then goes into his own internal struggles with what had transpired and the aftermath. My favorite line is “sometimes complaining is the only solace” (9). The vintage comics section I found to be the most intriguing as I enjoy (though I don’t often understand) that early 20th century humor. Spiegelman chose is 8 comics, it seems, based on themes of buildings and American patriotism. I am grateful he includes an explanation of them, especially the Krazy Kat comic, as I would probably not understand the connection he drew between them and 9/11 otherwise. Actually, I was a little disappointed in the vintage comics used. I thought they’d deal with how comic writers dealt with other tragedies. My favorite vintage comic is the first one used in plate 1 “Etymological Vaudeville” where Happy Hooligan gets ready for bed and takes off one of his shoes that goes “Klomp!” Not wanting to wake his family, he quietly takes off the other shoe and goes to bed only to be awakened by his family cussing and yelling, “Drop the other @*g! shoe so we can go to sleep!”.

What strikes me the most is the reoccurring theme that the end of the world is upon us. I think that probably people from every generation felt this away about the tragic events of their time, be it war, famine, plague, etc. Spiegelman makes statements like “I worry whether New York City or I will still be around” (7). I think we all are guilty of taking our time on earth too seriously. We like to think that we witnessed the worst thing to ever happen in the history of man. Horror is all relative of course, but in the scheme of history, as horrible as 9/11 was, it was not the worst thing to happen on earth. Worse things have happened in the past and will happen in the future. Spiegelman himself hints at this at the end of his introduction: “I still believe the world is ending, but I concede that it seems to be ending more slowly than I once thought” (i).

3 Stars Go Shopping and Be Afraid
There’s no way this project could be as tremendous as Spiegelman’s life’s work, “Maus,” but it’s tough not to make comparisons. This book consists of just ten large-scale comic strips that Spiegelman created to explore his feelings about 9/11 and its aftermath. Spiegelman’s personal experience of the disaster – his family lives and works literally next to the World Trade Center – gives his accounts a direct poignancy, with more strength and emotion than the jingoism you get from pundits who weren’t there. And as always, Spiegelman’s artwork is outstandingly expressive, with his gifts for artistic allegory and surrealism in full eye-popping display. However, things go asunder when Spiegelman extends his comic strips to the political aftermath of 9/11. I don’t disagree with the idea that the Bush administration has used the disaster to consolidate votes and bully a fearful public into backing their political agenda, and I won’t accuse Spiegelman of conspiracy theorizing as others have. However, Spiegelman’s social and political philosophy is rather undeveloped and sketchy, and frankly too weak to stand next to his outstanding artwork. Meanwhile, the second half of this very meager book consists of reprints of old comic strips from the early 1900’s, which Spiegelman says have influenced his artwork and his opinions on the post-9/11 American political landscape. These strips are certainly interesting from a historical standpoint, but I’m not really buying Spiegelman’s claims of a direct connection to the rest of the book. [~doomsdayer520~]

Buy/More Info

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Email Address(required)

Website

Security Code: