Not just the conspiracy-theory stuff (which leads me to wonder if Veitch actually believes this stuff or is just engaging in some epic trolling and cashing a paycheck while he’s at it) — I can read and enjoy Mr. A even though I totally disagree with its message.

(Actually, there are quite a few bits that Veitch gets exactly right — the warnings that went ignored, the PNAC’s reference to “another Pearl Harbor”, and so forth. Which makes the leap of logic to “inside job” more frustrating; I’m strictly a Hanlon’s Razor guy and think the Bush Administration was asleep at the switch and missed the warnings, but once the attack hit it saw the justification it needed to go to war in Iraq. Equating that — rather reasonable, IMO — belief with the idea that there were explosives planted in the towers makes it much easier to confuse legitimate criticism of the Bush Administration with out-to-lunch conspiracy mongering.)

But anyhow, all that aside, it doesn’t make for a good comic. The dialogue is heavyhanded and riddled with typos. The plot is obvious, and something we’ve seen a thousand times before (time traveler tries to prevent a tragedy but nobody believes her). The setting, too, is suitable for a low-budget episode of Twilight Zone or Hitchcock; most of it takes place inside a meeting room. And as such, the issue suffers its biggest flaw: Veitch’s art, which should have been the highlight of this book, just isn’t very impressive. It’s talking heads, broken up by pictures that look like they’d be more at home as clip art in a Truther’s PowerPoint presentation. Some of the layouts are quite nice, but by and large it’s just blah.

For all its flaws, I quite liked Army @ Love. It had weird, offbeat characters, goofy tech, and even though it was about the wars in the Middle East it didn’t seem to have any overwhelming political message or propaganda purpose (or, if it did, it didn’t leave enough of an impression on me to remember it). This is missing all those things.

I would really like to see Veitch just go nuts with a Tales from the Crypt homage series, and that’s what I was hoping we’d get here beneath the Truther facade. But beneath the Truther facade there’s nothing. I’d say the book is exactly what it says it is, but even that’s not quite true — because it doesn’t even live up to the over-the-top promise of the agonized, flag-waving, giant Uncle Sam standing over the Twin Towers on the cover.

Basically, its cardinal sin isn’t its message — it’s that it’s just utterly mundane.

Static Shock should be good; hoping they don’t run out before I make it to the shop.

Will probably grab the Veitch book. I love his art and he’s done fantastic, non-exploitative work about 9/11 before (Can’t Get No), and I AM morbidly curious about how he’s going to play the “truther” angle. Ostensibly he’s going for an EC/Twilight Zone thing.

Poor taste and exploitation? Yeah, probably. But that’s how I see most of the commemoration coverage on TV. I had my fill of watching those buildings burn a decade ago, and there’s something pornographic about showing it over and over again. At least Veitch is open about it.