9/11 survivor Thomas Haddad’s wildly diverse, frequently phantasmagorical “drawings from the bus” have the mythic detailing of a tarot deck, but also an exaggerated, grotesque quality resonant with underground comics and the work of Ralph Steadman and Gerald Scarfe.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Haddad was at work as a design director, his office just 30 feet below the site of impact. “As a visual person, the events of 9/11 were overwhelming and I began to shut down,” he writes. “Thankfully my wife had the insight to recognize that I needed to refocus myself … So she bought me a sketchbook and suggested that I use it as a diary in pictures.”
The Fabulist is honored to share a few of these deeply personal, strangely beautiful works.

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad

The Bus Drawings (c) Thomas Haddad
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