Yesterday morning as my wife and I were getting ready for the day, scanning the TV stations for a weather forecast, my six-year-old son walked in on one of the many 9/11 retrospectives. It may very well have been the first time he’d been confronted with the horrid imagery of the event. He turned to us and asked, "How did that happen?" Good question. And one I realized I didn’t have a very good answer for beyond, "Some people wanted to make us really sad."

Like most people, I haven’t taken the time, or had the stomach, to read through the 568-page report from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Which is exactly why comic book legends Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon created The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. It’s a loyal, somber, and carefully detailed illustrated retelling of the report, complete with a four-lane (one for each plane) timeline depicting the events of the day in parallel as only a graphic novel can. I ended up reading it in its entirety last night instead of watching the made-for-TV version.

Go to Slate.com for some sample panels.

Go to NPR.com for an audio interview with the creators.

Sam Cannon