Check out the interesting interview in Comic Book Resources with the three artists behind “The Warren Commission Report: A Graphic Investigation into the Kennedy Assassination.”
Excerpts
Why did you want to give the Warren Commission’s report the graphic novel treatment?
Ernie Colón: “The Commission’s report was well written (surprisingly) but was so extensive in facts, names, plane schedules, times, etc., that I found it impossible to digest. It was this difficulty -— shared by others with whom I spoke — that led to the idea of presenting it in graphic form.”
What did they make of the Commission’s work?
Dan MIshkin: “As our book points out, some of the younger staff attorneys realized what a mistake it was to write the report as a brief for the prosecution of Lee Harvey Oswald instead of saying ‘Here is the best evidence we have and here is the best conclusion we can draw from it.’ They not only closed the door to open dialogue with the American people about their conclusions, but in being so definitive about every one of their claims, they left themselves vulnerable to attack whenever any single element of their findings turned out to be mistaken -— even if those mistakes would not have materially affected their overall conclusion.”
How did you develop the look of the book?
Jerzy Drozd: “The only substantial piece of research that fell to me was coming up with the color palette. I studied advertising art and lifestyle magazines from the period. I also wanted to find a coloring style that would work with Ernie’s art, so I spent a good deal of time pouring over Ernie’s recent works like ‘The 9/11 Report’ and his Anne Frank biography (which is time well spent regardless).”
And, of course, who dun it?
Dan Mishkin: “I did come to settle on what I think is the most convincing theory of the case, and was surprised to find myself basically on the side of the Warren Report, at least as far as the findings are concerned. I think it’s virtually impossible to read from the physical evidence any conclusion except that Oswald was the only person who fired a weapon in Dealey Plaza that day; and I think it’s nearly that hard to place him as a member (or dupe) of any conspiracy, largely because of the timing of his getting the job at the Texas School Book Depository and the announcement of the motorcade route.”
(Art credit: From The Warren Commission Report: A Graphic Investigation Into the Kennedy Assassination, by Dan Mishkin, Ernie Colon and Jerzy Drozd.)
With all due respect to the artists, this post epitomizes the depths to which the invetigation into Kennedy’s murder has sunk. I completely understand though. Any references I make to the Kennedy murder immediately putsw my class to sleep. A comic book on the other hand is something that today’s xbox generation can readily relate to – the same way I embraced Batman, Supreman and Green Lantern on rainy days at Summer camp in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Co-opting the Warren report, hook, line and sinker, for your graphic novel is certainly the path of least resistance. When Oliver Stone released “JFK”, our CIA-subverted media went into high gear. He was called a revisionist crackpot by anyone with a pulpit; Network TV, radio, newsmagazines, columnists, all questioned his sanity. On the other hand, simply regurgitating the Warren Report precludes any trouble from the Government or the Media. Dan, Jerzy, Ernie, the comic book is really neat. Old heads like myself who lived through the Kennedy murder and the government cover-up combined with our being dragged into a brutal war by a corrupt, power mad Commander in Chief who proved to be complicit in the murder and cover-up and whose war resulted in the deaths of millions of Asians and tens of thousands of young Americans causes me to bemoan the mis-direction of your tremendous talent. I wish you the best of luck and just hope you’ll continue to investigate the assassination. With your intelligence and natural curiousity it won’t take much for you to understand what really happened here back in the 60’s. Then, I’m sure you’ll create the ground breaking work that the Country needs to get us out of the dark place that our intelligence agencies and masters of war have taken us. Thanks!