In the summer of 2004, the “Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States” was presented to the American Public. The following December, a report card was issued indicating a large lack of preparedness and leadership prior to the 9/11 attacks. Full of complicated data and detailed analysis, this document was supposed to explain what happened on September 11 and offer insight on preventing future attacks. Jacobson and Colon partnered to create a “graphic adaptation” of the report. Their comic-book version comes complete with data, timelines, and realistic drawings of familiar people, including General Tommy Franks, Osama Bin Laden, and Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The adaptation is a highly effective way to make the often inscrutable report understandable by more people. Particularly effective is the way it uses visuals to convey time. For example, each of the flights’ timelines appear on the same page to allow readers to have a better sense of the speed of the attacks, an achievement straight text does not allow. Additionally, familiar objects such as maps and flags are used as shorthand, permitting readers to focus on less familiar words and situations in a book that provides interested teens an opportunity to understand the background behind the devastation of September 11, 2001. (Age 12 and older)

The 9/11 Report for Every American On December 5, 2005, the 9/11 Commission issued its final report card on the government's fulfillment of the recommendations issued in July 2004: one A, twelve Bs, nine Cs, twelve Ds, three Fs, and four incompletes. Here is stunning evidence that Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, with more than sixty years of experience in the comic-book industry between them, were right: far, far too few Americans have read, grasped, and demanded action on the Commission's investigation into the events of that tragic day and the lessons America must learn. Using every skill and storytelling method Jacobson and Colon have learned over the decades, they have produced the most accessible version of the 9/11 Report. Jacobson's text frequently follows word for word the original report, faithfully captures its investigative thoroughness, and covers its entire scope, even including the Commission's final report card. Colon's stunning artwork powerfully conveys the facts, insights, and urgency of the original. Published on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States, an event that has left no aspect of American foreign or domestic policy untouched, The 9/11 Report puts at every American's fingertips the most defining event of the century.