I was several thousand miles away in London, when it happened, chatting to a Los Angeles-based friend on Instant Messenger about something else entirely. Something comic-related, though to be honest I can't remember exactly what. I'm sure it seemed important at the time.

What happened over the next few hours of September 11th put the lie to that soon enough.

People who are familiar with my general stance on entertainment will know that I'm vehemently anti-censorship. That hasn't changed.

That said, I can of course understand the motive behind the shelving, delaying and general pulling of many pieces of entertainment in the wake of the disasters. No, I'm not particularly keen on watching AIRPORT or THE TOWERING INFERNO right now, either.

But some of these content restrictions baffle me. Let's take a look, first, at some of the sensible ones:

The cover artwork for PARTY MUSIC, a CD by rap-funk band The Coup, which was due in stores mid-September, was unfortunately uncannily prescient. It's being redesigned.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE, the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie that sees his character's family die when a skyscraper explodes (the title refers to civilian losses incurred during acts of war and terrorism), has been shelved. So has BIG TROUBLE, a Barry Sonnenfeld comedy where the final scene features a nuclear bomb on board an aeroplane. In the UK, political terrorist thriller SWORDFISH was pulled from cinemas, despite having already been on screens for a couple of weeks.

On television, screenings of INDEPENDENCE DAY, THE PEACEMAKER, and THE X-FILES movie (which begins with a bomb in an office building) were all pulled from schedules. One UK station quietly removed millennium-thriller STRANGE DAYS... and replaced it with ROBOCOP. I found that decision quite odd.

In comics, the collection of Garth Ennis and Phil Winslade's GODDESS, which featured a boat embedded halfway up a skyscraper, and a Boeing 747 being intentionally crashed onto a crowded beach, has been shelved. One issue of DC's crossover OUR WORLDS AT WAR, which shipped directly after September 11 showed the aftermath of an attack on Metropolis' LexCorp twin towers; there was no time to pull the issues, but DC offered full returnability to retailers if they wanted it.

There are, of course, many more. A TOMORROW PEOPLE audio drama is currently being rewritten, as it features a terrorist attack on - and subsequent collapse of - a skyscraper. NOSEBLEED, in which Jackie Chan plays a WTC window-washer who foils a terrorist bomb plot, is being rewritten. Production of the WAR OF THE WORLDS movie remake is on hiatus. MEN IN BLACK 2, which both opened and closed at the WTC, is being relocated. SMUGGLER'S RUN 2 from RockStar Games, a large part of which was set to take place in Afghanistan, is being revised. And so on.

Now, that list's unfortunate, but entirely understandable. A lot of people are going to lose money over those decisions, but no one can blame them. A comedy on board a doomed airliner? A video game about outrunning guerrilla forces in Afghanistan? Not a chance in the present climate.

'A comedy on board a doomed airliner? Not a chance in the present climate.' But there are many examples of other, less sensible reactions to this. So let's look at a few of them:

The SPIDER-MAN movie was one of the first things to be affected. The trailer, which prominently featured the WTC, was pulled from screens, and posters that showed the WTC reflected in a close-up of the hero's eyes were also taken down. Both are being edited. The forthcoming SPIDER-MAN videogame featured an entire level set around the WTC. Not any more.

Radio stations across the world issued lists of songs that were not to be played on air. The most widely-leaked of these was the Clear Radio list, which was ridiculously long and included such absurdities as Louis Armstrong's WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD and Metallica's CREEPING DEATH - actually a song based on the Biblical tales of Moses and Goshen.

PROPELLER ARENA, a multi-player game from Sega in which players pilot fighting aeroplanes above cities, has been "indefinitely postponed". Apparently, it was possible to crash planes into buildings in the game, thereby blowing them up.

Wal-Mart has asked film studios to supply a list of all titles that contain scenes of the WTC (They still sell guns, of course). On the same note, Blockbuster Video is pointing out movies and games that contain "terrorist themes". Their signage will be in place at least until the end of this year. Ironically, unconfirmed reports from the US indicate that sales and rentals of movies such as DIE HARD and EXECUTIVE DECISION are skyrocketing.

But the most absurd reaction - and, frankly, the most sickening PR stunt - to come out of the incident was the 'news' from Pepsi that their ads featuring Britney Spears were to be pulled from US television because they were deemed "too frivolous."

And then, in comics, there's THE AUTHORITY. More of that later.

'Why is everyone engaging in a "We care more than you do" attitude?' Before I go on, please understand this: I have good friends in both New York and Washington. I spent almost all of September 11th, and most of the 12th, getting in touch with them to find out if they were all okay (they were). I also love New York in general, and considered moving there for a while. When the second tower came down, I watched in disbelief as the roof where I had stood two years before went crashing down into oblivion.

So yes, I may be a long way away, but I have an interest in these people's wellbeing. I also live in a country that has seen its own terrorism for the last twenty-odd years courtesy of the IRA and a few other fanatical sects. So I'm not at all unsympathetic.

But why - for the love of god, why - does everyone seem to be engaging in a ridiculous "We care more than you do" attitude? Why are people trying to sweep the World Trade Centre under the carpet, as if it never existed? Apart from being rather extreme, isn't that also just a little disrespectful to the thousands of people who died with it?

Not one New Yorker I know - and that includes a few who lost friends and colleagues that day - wants the WTC digitally removed from the SPIDER-MAN movie. None of them expects or wants entertainment to become a saccharine, lowest common denominator arena where nothing is broadcast or published that shows New York, or American life in general, in a less than stellar light. These companies are in control of their own properties, sure. But did anyone at Sony actually ask the public if they wanted SPIDER-MAN digitally castrated?

So. Comics. As an industry, we were a little slower to issue press releases than others concerning our reaction to the tragedy. But issue them we did - and we're already seeing the effects.

The first thought on many people's minds - the obvious one, really - concerned the future of THE AUTHORITY. Of course it did. No other comic in the last three years has become so synonymous with property damage, huge explosions, massive collateral casualties and 'acceptable losses.'

In a press release issued mid-September, it was announced that THE AUTHORITY was on indefinite hold. Actually, it was announced that the latest issue (due two weeks ago) wouldn't ship. No one would say when it was due to be resolicited. Reading between the lines, it's been shelved.

This was followed by an announcement that the AUTHORITY: WIDESCREEN one-shot, written and drawn by Bryan Hitch, is cancelled. This was mere days after Hitch had already asked DC to delay the book's release. They then asked Hitch to move the story's location somewhere where there would be no danger of civilian casualties, or to rewrite the story. He refused. The book is cancelled.

On the other side of town, Marvel are adopting the red, white and blue 'ribbon' symbol in wake of the tragedy, and putting it on the cover every single book they publish for the next year.

Evidently, the comics industry - the larger end of it at least - is going to be feeling the ramifications of September 11th for some time. But one has to wonder at the reasoning behind some of these actions.

'No-one buying AUTHORITY is in any doubt as to what to expect.' Take THE AUTHORITY. Frankly, this is madness of the highest order. AUTHORITY is a 'destination' title, which people seek out for a specific type of story. It's not even a regular in the 25 best-selling monthly comics. No one buying it is in any doubt as to what they should expect: massive destruction and carnage. But the books have been pulled anyway.

The removal of references to the World Trade Centre in movies, comics, even adverts, is one thing. Whether or not you agree with the decision, the fact is that the WTC itself is hardly going to be so instrumental to a story that it cannot be replaced. More noticeably, however, there is a definite shying away from stories that deal with terrorism, aeroplanes and large buildings falling down.

But how long is too long to mourn? Few people seemed to mind these stories before, and the threat of terrorism (or buildings exploding) is hardly new. So perhaps the most widespread effect of these events will be a fuller understanding on the part of the readers - and an increased sense of responsibility on the part of the creators - that such events, when and if they do occur, are dealt with realistically.

The effects of, say, Superman being thrown through a building will certainly have to be reconsidered. No-one in America is now going to read such a scene without wondering if the building may collapse.

This in itself is curious - was elementary physics beyond readers before they actually saw such a thing happen? - but this is just one of the effects that this will have on comics, and the next few months will prove to be very interesting.

One effect is the various 'benefit comics' being published by the major companies, all featuring work done on a volunteer basis, and all with the proceeds donated to charity. This is a fine way to do some good.

And there is hope for reasonable heads. The Onion was a welcome sight to many a couple of weeks ago. The humour website handled the situation with remarkable intelligence and wit, running such stories as GOD REITERATES "THOU SHALT NOT KILL" COMMANDMENT.

Brian Wood, creator of CHANNEL ZERO and a native New Yorker, said he has no plans to alter his forthcoming THE WALK - which deals with a suicide bomber in New York - or any of his other typically highly political comics. Oni Press announced that a storyline in Greg Rucka's QUEEN & COUNTRY, which takes place in Afghanistan, will not be pulled or censored. Rather than producing a benefit comic, Oni is holding a charity auction of rare and exclusive materials donated by comic creators.

These are moves that deserve to be supported. Reasonable, intelligent people generally do not want their entertainment to be 'dumbed down' or diluted for fear of offending the, well, easily-offended. The worst thing we can do now, as an industry and as people, is try to pretend these terrorist attacks did not happen - or that similar events could never happen in the future.

We cannot afford to worry that every passing mention of aeroplanes, bombs or skyscrapers will offend the world at large. There is fiction, there is fact, and confusing the two will not help anyone.

Now. Stop reading, and go remind someone that you love them.

Antony Johnston is the author of JULIUS, SPOOKED and THE LONG HAUL. His new ongoing series WASTELAND begins in July 2006.

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