The Big Lie has been awarded a 6th place standing in the most controversial comic books of 2011!
The 11th Annual Rumour Awards, presented by Bleeding Cool, has named The Big Lie as the only title from Image Comics to make the list for most controversial comics of 2011.
Veteran artist and writer Rick Veitch teamed up with other veterans of the industry; Thomas Yeates for the cover and editing; Gary Erskine for inks; Dominic Regan on colors and Annie Parkhouse lettering to create The Big Lie. Brian Romanoff, new to the comic book industry, assisted in editing and fact-checking. Produced by Truth be Told Comics and published by Image Comics, The Big Lie was released on September 7th, 2011 – days before the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
Among the 12 comics awarded a placing, The Big Lie is notable due to its story content that brings readers back to the day of September 11th, 2001.
Essentially recapping the events of 9/11 with a dramatic fictional approach of time travel, The Big Lie covers facts like; foreknowledge of the attacks; interesting business relations to the Saudi Royal Family; missing air defense; FBI agents trying to warn their superiors; and WTC 7 among other amazing details.
The story of The Big Lie comic book continues to unfold. Released just in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, over 8,600 copies of 10,000 first-print runs have been sold. This is great news! I am happy that people are still enjoying the comic or reading it for the first time.
by Robert Sodaro source: Examiner.com Jan 11, 2011
On the 10th anniversary of 9/11 Image Comics published a one-shot comicbook entitled The Big Lie — written and drawn by comic’s veteran, Rick Veitch, Gary Erskine (inks), with Thomas Yeates (cover), Dominic Reagan (color), and Annie Parkhouse (letters). According to the publisher, The Big Lie will be a series of one-shot/stand-alone comics that will serve as conversation pieces for many comic fans and non-comic fans alike. The intention of the comic is to explore very real and often politically-charged questions in traditional comic book format. The first issue of The Big Lie was published in honor of the attacks of September 11th, 2001.
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Ultimately, time travel and intense drama aren’t the only literary hallmarks utilized in the pages of The Big Lie; Veitch and company also tap a familiar comicbook storytelling device in the form of American icon Uncle Sam, who becomes the story’s narrator, it’s “Uncle Creepy” if you will, and helps move the story forward. As the story plays out, each detail about the events leading up to 9/11 are discussed in a clear-headed fashion, and presented with the members of the risk-management team verifying all of the details.
Needless to say, some of the rhetoric espoused in the book seems to play into Truther rants that have the government capitulating with the Terrorists (even perhaps setting on their tasks, in order to set off some sinister agenda against the citizens of the United States). Still, the underlying point of this comic is to get the reader to look at the events of that day through a different lens, and to question what they have been told by government and sanctioned media sources. To that end, the story succeeds in its endeavor. Sure it is easy to accept what we’ve been told — it is also easy to accept the “facts” of this comic, still the message is clear — question everything, and then make up their own mind.
The Big Lie comic book, featuring many important facts regarding the 9/11 attacks, will be presented on KPFA’s Guns and Butter program with Bonnie Faulkner!
The Big Lie will be one more important item offered by KPFA in its annual Fall Pledge Drive.
Looking around on the internet it is clear that the The Big Lie is still creating interest and spawning conversation in diverse circles inside and outside of the regular 9/11 groups. The video above was posted by LeakSourceArchive. Here is a look at a selection of the most recent articles and interviews regarding The Big Lie.
Veteran comic Rick Veitch (Swamp Thing) is the author and illustrator of The Big Lie, a 32-page comic book about a woman who goes back in time to save her husband from the upper floors of the North Tower. Armed with her iPad, she has only an hour to convince her husband and his associates to evacuate the doomed building. “I don’t claim to know what went on behind the scenes,” she tells them. “I’m just telling you what is public record where I come from.”
The writer never directly points fingers at the government or President Bush and screams “The government was behind the attacks!”, but that’s basically what he is saying, and he does offer some very interesting and thought provoking points, which is the real goal of this title.
As a story, this comic can be a little clunky in parts, but that’s not really a concern. I don’t want to weigh in on the whole ‘Truther’ movement, or what I personally believe, as I don’t feel very qualified to discuss it. What I will say is that this comic provides a lot of food for thought, and does it in an easily-digestible manner. Veitch is a comics god when it comes to forcing people to question some of their assumptions, and it’s nice to see him continuing to raise his voice in such a compelling way.
I do think it’s a very strong and inventive first issue, and I look forward to reading the next installment of the series. I’m just wondering if the following issues will also concern 9/11, or if they will focus on some of the other “very real and often political questions” as noted on the Truth Be Told Comics website.
Was there more to this attack than we suspect, and if so, should some of the blame fall on our own elected officials? Writer Rick Veitch and artist Gary Erskine clearly express their First Amendment rights within the comics medium as they try to answer some of those questions in this collaboration from Image Comics.
No matter which side of the political spectrum you might find yourself on, this comic deliberately challenges the reader to ask some rather uncomfortable questions about 9/11. It is clearly making out the Bush Administration to be “The Big Bad” and presents a good heft of information at the back of the book that you can look into if you so choose.
Rick Veitch has been pushing the boundaries of comic book storytelling as a writer and artist for over three decades. Best known for his mind-bending work on DC’sSwamp Thing, Veitch has worked on everything from mainstream superhero comics such as Justice League of America to the graphic navigation of the outer reaches of his own dreams in the independently publishedRare Bit Fiends.
Veitch’s most recent ongoing series wasArmy@Love, a black-humored, absurdist mash-up of romance and war genre comics, inspired in no small part by the hype and horror of the War on Terror. In 2006, Veitch released the epic book-length poemCan’t Get No, exploring one man’s soul-searching odyssey in the wake of 9/11. Publishers Weekly called it one of the “Best Books of 2006″.
Now Rick Veitch returns to 9/11 – this time exploring some of the many inconsistencies and contradictions of the official account – in a new book from Image Comics called
The Big Lie. 9/11 Truth News spoke to Rick Veitch to find out more about the inspiration behind his new work.
9/11 Truth News: Even 10 years down the road, it takes a lot of courage to speak up about 9/11, that much more so to release a major work calling it into question. You’re putting out a book called The Big Lie on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, so I imagine you must have very strong feelings about it. Why is 9/11 important to you?
Rick Veitch: It’s important to all of us. We all lost something on that morning when that attack happened. It took me a couple years to begin to really wonder about what actually happened in contrast to what we were told happened. Tom Yeates, who is the editor of this book and the guy who did the cover – he and I are old buddies, we went to the Kubert school together and shared a hippie art crash pad together decades ago. He and I would get on the phone and we’d start talking about this stuff and agreed the whole thing just stunk to high heaven. Tom turned me on to some good 9/11 research. And I was a big fan of Adam Curtis’ BBC documentaries, especially THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES. I can’t say that I’m what some folks refer to as a “truther”, but I try to stay informed about events and I’m naturally skeptical of “official” stories. This one never quite convinced me. There are just too many holes in it.
THE BIG LIE, a 9/11 comic book is in comic book stores in less than a week! Here is a preview of page 21. To find more information about The Big Lie or see more preview pages visit:
Writer Alex Zalben recently interviewed Rick Veitch about the up and coming comic book The Big Lie. The interview was posted on Mtv Geek and opens like so:
With the tenth anniversary of 9/11 fast approaching, there will be a lot of looks back, some fond, some heartbreaking… And then there will be “The Big Lie,” a comic book by Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine that finds a scientist traveling back in time to the day itself in order to stop the disaster. And while there, she finds out that maybe the truth isn’t as clear cut as she thought.
The article quickly moves to the interview with artist and writer of The Big Lie, Rick Veitch:
MTV Geek: Rick, let’s talk about The Big Lie… Right off the bat, the cover seems to be courting controversy. What’s your thought process on this?
Rick Veitch: The very best thought process there is, Alex! I sat back and let Thomas Yeates handle the cover. I think he’s done a splendid job of catching people’s attention with it, too.
Geek: The content certainly isn’t going to calm down those flames too much… Can you give us a summary of what the book is about?
RV: It’s a time travel drama about a scientist from 2011 returning to the morning of 9/11 to save her husband. She has to convince some skeptical people that the attack is imminent.
Geek: You actually tackled 9/11 before in “Can’t Get No,” which dealt with the tragedy more personally. How does that contrast with “The Big Lie?’
RV: In the “Can’t Get No” graphic novel I focused on one man’s experience of 9/11, looking at it through a poetic lens. “The Big Lie” is much more straightforward storytelling with a broader meta-view.
Geek: And has your opinion on 9/11 changed at all since writing that book?
RV: My opinion started to change when the Bush administration pushed for the invasion of Iraq. I was really angry how that went down, what it meant for America and what it meant for all the civilians caught in the crossfire. I started paying attention to the questions that had been raised about 9/11 then. When Thomas Yeates asked Gary Erskine and I to do the book, I researched the subject more in-depth. There’s a lot of disinformation to cut through, but I’m convinced a real investigation is needed.
Posted by Brian 
