Broken Frontier

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is an important book. It shies away from all the political controversy in regard to hurricane Katrina and New Orleans surrounding the Bush adminstration and focuses on the human aspect. A.D. is mostly concerned in tracing the human reaction to this natural disaster, unencumbered from political choices. Josh Neufeld sticks to the facts surrounding the coming of Katrina and its magnitude, its diaspora over New Orleans and the consequent failure of the levees. Within this meticulately laid out framework, he follows selected characters and the choices they make in this natural disaster of extraordinary magnitude.

Here we meet Denise, a counselor and social worker, and a sixth-generation New Orleanian; “The Doctor,” a proud fixture of the French Quarter; Abbas and Darnell, two friends who face the storm from Abbas’s family-run market; Kwame, a pastor's son just entering his senior year of high school; and the young couple Leo and Michelle, who both grew up in the city. Each is forced to confront the same wrenching decision–whether to stay or to flee.

First serialized online at Smithmag.net, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge has been tranformed into a big coffeetable hardcover book and with reason. Judging from the afterword and the online articles surrounding A.D.; this is a hugely researched book and worthy of the name 'comics reporting'. The author himself has personally interviewed Katrina survivors and chose a well balanced group of characters to portray different facets of the horror that New Orleans went through: ethnic diversity, evacuees, residents that decided to stay, people stuck in the dome etc. He has also done volunteer work after Katrina in Mississipi, delivering hot meals to sections of the city without power.

The graphic novel is told chronologically and divided into chapters. The book is presented in an almost square format with few panels per page. All this makes for very easy reading and makes it extremely accessible for a non-comics audience which is a very smart choice concerning the subject matter. Within each chapter heading, we follow all the characters and the decisions they make. This makes sometimes for a jumbled reading experience since Neufeld skips around a lot. It mirrors the chaos that New Orleans and its populace is experiencing but it also detracts a bit from the reading experience. Since differnent people have different reactions, they also choose action at a different timeframe so this does not allow the building up of any tension. The tension in this GN comes from the natural disaster which is basically throughout the whole book.

Neufeld also focuses very much on the happenings and the reactions of the people but does not entirely succeed in making the characters come alive. The self identification does not rise above the universal experiences of loss and life the people in this comic undergo and I found myself feeling a bit sorry that I didn't get to know them better. The story of "the Doctor" especially suffers from this. This does not detract completely from the reading experience, there is plenty to like in the comic and the way it is told. Because of the horrific happenstance, some identification is still reached.

The fluid and cartoony approach Neufeld takes for his art is spot-on though. He has a fluid line and a good view of individualistic traits in people. By his art alone, we get to know the protagonists (including the hurricane itself, Neufeld even devotes a whole chapter to it) and his backgrounds and details are always carefully selected and meticulously laid out. His brushwork has a very high immediacy without losing the intimate feel needed to efficiently handle the subject matter. From buildings to people to submerged streets, Neufeld covers it all with ease and clarity.

The colours also makes the artwork stand out. Neufeld opts to use one muted  colour for a page and often switches it around. Unfortunately there is no rhyme or reason for his colourswitches. It could have been a colour code for the tale of each individual character f.i., adding clarity to the reading experience. However graphically, it does work.

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge depicts the human experience at its peak. Anger, frustration, sorrow and hope; you can all read it from the faces of seven human beings that are being followed while they undergo hurricane Katrina and its consequences in New Orleans. Josn Neufeld's fluid brush evenly depicts the fall of a city beset upon by nature's wrath and the reactions and emotions of those caught in the middle. Highly recommended.

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld is published by Pantheon. It is a 208 pages full colour hardcover graphic novel, retailing for €24.99 and is available in finer bookstores and comic shops across the world.