Where were YOU on the morning of September 11th, 2001? I was at work when Howard Stern reported that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center Towers. Having been born and raised in The Bronx before moving to Rochester, N.Y., my workday immediately ended as I focused my full attention on Howard's show; He became my only link to the city I loved and would always call home. Later on came the TV reports and the images that will never leave my mind, but for those first few hours, I sat listening in shock as the man who makes me laugh every workday became my only connection to family, friends, and loved ones who were suddenly living in a war-zone.

9-11: Emergency Relief is a benefit book that is filled with true stories from September 11th. They range from touching, to infuriating, to thought-provoking, and the list of creators reads like a who's who of Indy Comics: James Kochalka, Will Eisner, Tony Millionaire, Harvey Pekar, Tom Hart, Joyce Brabner, Ted Rall, and literally DOZENS of others. Besides being entertaining, and raising money for the Red Cross, the book fulfills another important purpose: It stands as a reminder of a day we must NEVER forget. God Bless America!

Easily the best of the comics industry's myriad responses to the tragedy of September 11th, this book gets down into the nitty-gritty of human experiences and reactions to tragedy. No superheroes. No larger-than-life expostulation. Just real people - talented artists - telling amazing stories. Higlights include Gregory Benton's "Treasure," an untitled Hutch Owen story by Tom Hart that manages to toe the fine line between rage and sentiment and "Citadel Of The Night" by K. Thor Jensen and Chris Knowle. Honestly, though, the book is so full of great material that nobody should be without it.

After the September 11th terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and in the skies over Pennsylvania, some 50 graphic novelists and cartoonist ranging from such legendary names as Will Eisner and Harvey Pekar, to newer talents such as Frank Cho and James Kochalka, came together in a very special project as a way of expressing their grief, patriotism, and support of the American people in the face of naked, lethal, ideologically driven aggression. The result is 9-11: Emergency Relief, a powerful graphic novel. The proceeds will go to benefit the American Red Cross. Simply put, every school and every community library in the country should acquire a copy of 9-11: Emergency Relief for the edification of their students and their patrons.

A quick summary of Dean Haspiel's post-modern quirk-fest is a hard thing to nail down, but I'll give it a try. Our protagonist, the aforementioned Billy Dogma, is a hopeless, loquacious romantic: all he wants is to hang with his girlfriend, the beautiful Jane Legit. Unfortunately, the world's a little more practical place than that, so he's gotta swim with the sharks if he's gonna make ends meet. They can try and make him compromise his integrity, as long as they don't mind a faceful of fist every now and then! Truly "getting" Haspiel's Billy Dogma stories requires a little bit of work on the reader's part, and maybe a second or third reading, but it's well worth the effort. Having the whole kit and kaboodle in one big chunk is helpful, too. And at seven bucks for almost a hundred pages, can you really say no?

Haspiel's stream-of-consciousness existential musings are engagingly brought to life by the motley crew of characters, including gun-toting Billy Dogma, his girlfriend Jane Legit, down-on-his-luck superhero Max Trope, and many others. The writing is often poetic-- although maybe not purposefully so?-- and the drawing is dynamic and sometimes beautiful.