I recently a watched a movie on Netflix called Come Sunday starring Chewitel Ejitofor, Condola Rashad, Danny Glover and Jason Segal.  In the movie, Ejitofr’s character questioned the existence of hell. This created a firestorm in his life which showed him his enemies from his friends. Eventually he would lose everything and truly look to understand why God put him in that position, which is something many Christians often paraphrase “God only gives you what you can handle.”

This very axiom is what most Christians use for every bad thing that comes their way including disasters and devastating life events. Every tragedy or difficult work situations challenge people and this is where many turn to religion while others respond by action or through outlets like art.

In comics, both DC and Marvel created tribute books to help with charities supporting victims of the attacks on 9/11, while other artists responded in kind. One of those artists, who is considered a legend, Art Spiegelman, was so moved he chronicled his own life and outrage within the pages of In The Shadows Of No Towers.

Spiegelman, within the first few panels, takes us through “The New Normal”, as people all over the world had to get used to what were seeing before our eyes, from words like “Taliban” to seeing smoke form the top of the Twin Towers. We also follow Spiegelman, as he looks for his daughter, soon after the Towers came down, which relives the panic of everyone that day, looking out for the welfare of the family. Eventually, he starts looking at the root causes of this disaster, in what he labels” The Ostrich Party”, where politicians from both parties make no progress are from their 19^th century and the many bad decisions by the many administrators, have left these situations in the Middle East to exacerbate. By book’s end, Spiegelman, does what good creators do, ask the questions we all wonder and say the things we wish we could say.

Overall, one artist’s exploration of the world before and after 9/11, and how we get here. The stories as told by Spiegelman, is intense, funny, irreverent, thought provoking and brilliant. The art by Spiegelman, is alluring, evocative and vivid. Altogether, a book which both challenges and entertains in ways which our politically correct world tends to course correct before the point is made.

Story: Art Spiegelman Art: Art Spiegelman
Story: 10 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.6 Recommendation: Buy