Josh Neufeld reflects on 'A.D.'

Josh Neufeld is the writer and artist of  "A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge" at SMITH Magazine, a nonfiction work about Hurricane Katrina that now stands as one of the most compelling achievements in the still-nascent medium of Web comics. "A.D." was the brainchild of Neufeld and Larry Smith, the founder of SMITH, who accompanied the artist into the disaster zone. The Hero Complex invited Neufeld to reflect on the project, which will be published next year in a print edition.

I recently finished serializing a 15-part nonfiction graphic novel about Hurricane Katrina for SMITH Magazine. Titled "A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge," the comic follows the experiences of six New Orleanians before, during and after the Aug. 29, 2005, storm.

I volunteered with the Red Cross soon after Katrina (working in Biloxi, Miss., for three weeks in October 2005) and started the research on "A.D." in late 2006, and SMITH posted the first chapter — a prologue, actually — in January 2007. So "A.D." has been nearly three years in the making, and an intensely personal experience throughout.

Although we timed the ending of the online comic with the third anniversary of Katrina, it was pure chance that I was finishing the work just as another hurricane was building in the Caribbean. Attempting to focus on meeting my Aug. 28, 2008, deadline, I couldn’t help being horribly fascinated as Gustav inexorably mutated from tropical depression to tropical storm to hurricane, and then grew from a Category 3 to a Category 4 — all the while heading toward New Orleans. It was all so familiar, and I took time out from my deadline to check up on my subjects (most of whom still live in New Orleans) to make sure they had evacuation plans. (They all did, except for The Doctor, who has the good fortune to live on high ground, in the French Quarter — and is stubborn, to boot.)

A large part of my job as the writer/artist of "A.D." has been to act as a journalist, and SMITH editor Larry Smith and I have met with our subjects many times, including making a number of visits to New Orleans for face-to-face interviews and photo sessions. I’ve become quite close with "A.D.’s" subjects over the last two years, and by virtue of their involvement, a number of the characters have become closely attached to the project as well. As a result, I’ve come to more deeply understand my responsibility toward them personally and to the project as a whole.

One of the most compelling Web comics to date is Josh Neufeld's sobering documentary effort "A.D." at SMITH Magazine. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, now is the time. The final chapter of the epic has been posted and, not surprisingly, it's a thoughtful, candid and gripping finale to many months of labor by Neufeld.   

I talked to Neufeld last year about the project. Here's an excerpt from that article:

The pen-and-ink drawings are clear, simple and so static in their muted colors that they suggest an airless calm — but the real-life events in those drawings pulse with tension, confusion and fear.

“It’s an account of Hurricane Katrina by a small group of survivors,” artist Josh Neufeld said by phone recently, “but really, at its heart, it’s a story of loss and how we deal with loss.”

On Sunday, New York artist Neufeld posted online the sixth chapter of “A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge,” an illustrated work of nonfiction storytelling that springs from the tradition of comic books but, like so many similar projects these days, is poorly served by the clunky term.

Referring to “A.D” or one of Joe Sacco’s illustrated memoirs as a comic book is a bit like calling “Schindler’s List” a talkie.

“A.D.” tells the tale of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history through the experiences of six people: Denise, a poet and sixth-generation New Orleanian; Hamid, an Iranian-born father of two who owns an uptown market; Kevin, a high school student and the son of a pastor; a young couple, Leo, who works with developmentally disabled youngsters, and Michelle, a gymnastics instructor; and Dr. Brobson Lutz, a man about town and former health department official.

One person who is not in the story is the man holding the pen. Neufeld, 40, perhaps best known to comics fans as a frequent collaborator with Harvey Pekar on “American Splendor,” is the unseen journalist at work in “A.D.” But that doesn’t mean he didn’t witness the destruction of Katrina firsthand.

Neufeld was overwhelmed as he watched the media coverage of the hurricane and the destruction in its wake from his home in New York. After a few days, he had to act. He became a Red Cross volunteer and was shuttled down to the ravaged Mississippi coastal communities of Biloxi and Gulfport.

You can read the rest of that article right here. "A.D." will be collected in a printed graphic novel scheduled for release next summer, probably in August, right around the grim fourth anniversary of Katrina's devastation. I encourage you, though, to check it out now in its Internet incarnation; it's really a turning point for the medium of Web comics and it also has audio files posted that add different dimensions to the documentarian effort.

-- Geoff Boucher

BONUS: See more artwork and other reviews of "A.D." after the jump.

'A.D.' and Hurricane Katrina: After the flood

One of the most compelling Web comics to date is Josh Neufeld's sobering documentary effort "A.D." at SMITH Magazine. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, now is the time. The final chapter of the epic has been posted and, not surprisingly, it's a thoughtful, candid and gripping finale to many months of labor by Neufeld.   

I talked to Neufeld last year about the project. Here's an excerpt from that article:

The pen-and-ink drawings are clear, simple and so static in their muted colors that they suggest an airless calm — but the real-life events in those drawings pulse with tension, confusion and fear.

“It’s an account of Hurricane Katrina by a small group of survivors,” artist Josh Neufeld said by phone recently, “but really, at its heart, it’s a story of loss and how we deal with loss.”

On Sunday, New York artist Neufeld posted online the sixth chapter of “A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge,” an illustrated work of nonfiction storytelling that springs from the tradition of comic books but, like so many similar projects these days, is poorly served by the clunky term.

Referring to “A.D” or one of Joe Sacco’s illustrated memoirs as a comic book is a bit like calling “Schindler’s List” a talkie.

“A.D.” tells the tale of the worst natural disaster in U.S. history through the experiences of six people: Denise, a poet and sixth-generation New Orleanian; Hamid, an Iranian-born father of two who owns an uptown market; Kevin, a high school student and the son of a pastor; a young couple, Leo, who works with developmentally disabled youngsters, and Michelle, a gymnastics instructor; and Dr. Brobson Lutz, a man about town and former health department official.

One person who is not in the story is the man holding the pen. Neufeld, 40, perhaps best known to comics fans as a frequent collaborator with Harvey Pekar on “American Splendor,” is the unseen journalist at work in “A.D.” But that doesn’t mean he didn’t witness the destruction of Katrina firsthand.

Neufeld was overwhelmed as he watched the media coverage of the hurricane and the destruction in its wake from his home in New York. After a few days, he had to act. He became a Red Cross volunteer and was shuttled down to the ravaged Mississippi coastal communities of Biloxi and Gulfport.

You can read the rest of that article right here. "A.D." will be collected in a printed graphic novel scheduled for release next summer, probably in August, right around the grim fourth anniversary of Katrina's devastation. I encourage you, though, to check it out now in its Internet incarnation; it's really a turning point for the medium of Web comics and it also has audio files posted that add different dimensions to the documentarian effort.

-- Geoff Boucher

BONUS: See more artwork and other reviews of "A.D." after the jump.