Argh. Colleen Doran (artist) and Warren Ellis (writer) are both more than a bit concerned that folks will think their graphic novel, Orbiter, will be thought to be exploitative. Why? Because the first panel of the story about space travel, home, and triumph over adversity starts with ...

... a space shuttle crashing.

Again, argh.

Of course, the story was first proposed by Ellis in 2001, and production was nearly complete when Columbia went down. But with a scheduled publication date of 23 April, no doubt the "Two Towers are the Twin Towers" croud will cry foul.

Tough.

Doran had some interesting comments on the crash, too.

The message of Orbiter, she said Feb. 1, was hope. “It’s about not giving up. It’s about not pulling back in the face of adversity. I was talking with a friend this morning, and she said, ‘You’d think this would be routine by now.’
“How many centuries was it before an Atlantic crossing was routine? How many years before flight was routine? This was only STS 107. How routine is that? A space shuttle is a big flying brick that goes up into space on a huge bomb filled with extremely toxic material. This is not routine. This is very dangerous.
“These people are pioneers and explorers. They’re not the people who take you to New York on the United Shuttle. This is very dangerous work, and we can’t assume that, because something went wrong in this instance, we’ve got to stop because it’s so dangerous.
“How wimpy would that be? It would just mean that the meek have inherited the Earth — and are keeping the rest of us prisoner.”

Amen.

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