A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
**A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge** is a graphic novel that portrays the harrowing impact of Hurricane Katrina on seven real individuals from New Orleans. The narrative spans the period from the storm's approach to the aftermath, divided into five parts: "The Storm," "The City," "The Flood," "The Diaspora," and "The Return." With a focus on personal stories, the book highlights themes of loss, survival, and rebirth, illustrating how the storm irrevocably altered the lives of those affected. The characters, including an unemployed woman, a convenience store owner, and a doctor, each navigate their experiences of evacuation, displacement, and the struggle to rebuild. The art style is minimalist, emphasizing emotional depth through strong colors and realistic backgrounds, influenced by European comic traditions. Initially serialized as a webcomic, it gained acclaim for its journalistic excellence and became a bestseller after being published in print. The work resonates with readers by capturing the complexities of recovery and the indelible scars left by the disaster, while also critiquing the broader socio-political response to the crisis.
A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
AUTHOR: Neufeld, Josh
ARTIST: Josh Neufeld (illustrator)
PUBLISHER: Pantheon Books
FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 2007-2008
FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2009
Publication History
In 2006, Jeff Newelt, comics editor for the online magazine Smith, read a self-published book by Josh Neufeld titled Katrina Came Calling. The book centered on Neufeld’s volunteer work with the Red Cross in Biloxi, Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina. Newelt approached Neufeld about telling the story of Katrina and New Orleans in comic format for Smith magazine. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge was serialized as a Web comic from January, 2007, through August, 2008. The online version also included podcasts, videos, and a blog. In 2008, Pantheon Books offered to publish a book version, for which Neufeld expanded the work. He also changed some characters’ names and altered other minor details, partly in response to feedback on the Web comic. A hardcover version was published by Pantheon in 2009 and became a New York Times best seller. This was followed by a larger-format paperback version, also released by Pantheon in 2009. The print and Web comics are virtually identical except for three characters’ names, though only the print version is discussed below.
Plot
Hurricane Katrina struck the Mississippi Gulf coast on August 29, 2005. New Orleans experienced severe winds and then flooded as levees broke. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge tells of seven real people from New Orleans as they experience the storm’s approach, the storm itself or the exodus to avoid it, and the aftermath. The book is divided into five parts: “The Storm,” “The City,” “The Flood,” “The Diaspora,” and “The Return.”
“The Storm” provides an overview of the storm and the days before, beginning August 22, 2005, with clear skies in the Gulf of Mexico, and ending August 31, 2005, with New Orleans devastated and flooded. Images reveal the wind’s power as it tears roofs from buildings and pushes a Biloxi casino inland. There is no dialogue. Only a few people, including a floating body, are seen.
“The City” begins August 20, 2005, and introduces the seven main characters: Leo and Michelle, the Doctor, Kwame, Abbas and his friend Darnell, and Denise. All are aware of Katrina’s approach but know that the city has been spared many times by hurricanes. However, the mayor of New Orleans calls for an evacuation. Leo and Michelle leave, as do Kwame and his family. Abbas’s family evacuates, but Abbas stays to protect his store with the help of Darnell. Denise joins her mother at Memorial Baptist Hospital (Ochsner Baptist Medical Center), where her mother works. The Doctor stays in the city and has a “hurricane party” at his French Quarter home. Denise finds pandemonium at the hospital and returns to her home. The storm worsens, and Denise panics as her house is torn apart. The Doctor manages well, and Abbas and Darnell are battered but safe. Evacuees watching the news realize that the cleanup will take days. As the storm passes, though, most believe the worst is over.
Part 3, “The Flood,” begins August 29, 2005. Katrina has passed inland, and the skies are clear over New Orleans. However, levees have collapsed, and the city, which is shaped like a bowl, begins to flood. Abbas and Darnell move to the rooftops to escape the trash- and sewage-filled floodwaters. Denise and her family are taken to the New Orleans convention center, which is horribly overcrowded. Almost no drinking water is available. Denise finds that gang members are keeping order and bringing in water and food taken from local stores. In the relatively dry French Quarter, some bars remain open, though without electricity. The evacuees begin making long-term plans for relocating. Leo and Michelle take refuge with Leo’s parents, while Kwame begins to attend high school in California.
In “The Diaspora,” the waters have receded and the New Orleans population has been largely evacuated and scattered. Many remain in Houston, Texas, where Abbas finds his family. Denise and her family settle in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Leo and Michelle return temporarily but find their belongings destroyed; Leo saves only one comic from his massive collection. Kwame finishes high school in California and then enrolls in an Ohio college. Only the Doctor stays in New Orleans.
In “The Return,” people returning to New Orleans find a different city. Leo and Michelle are constantly reminded of their losses and feel angry with those who refuse to return and rebuild. Their story ends happily, however, when people start sending Leo replacements for his lost comics. Abbas reopens his store but recognizes the setbacks his business has experienced. Denise finds a job in New Orleans but is aware that many have not returned and perhaps never will.
Characters
•Denise, one of seven primary protagonists, is an African American woman with short hair and glasses. Her family has lived in New Orleans for six generations. She has a master’s degree in guidance and counseling but is unemployed when Hurricane Katrina hits. She shares an apartment in the Central City neighborhood with her mother, her niece, and her niece’s daughter. Her mother works as a surgical technician at Memorial Baptist Hospital. Denise does not evacuate during Katrina and experiences the horrific conditions firsthand.
•Leo, a protagonist, is a white male with a beard and glasses. A New Orleans native in his twenties, he edits the independent local music magazine AntiGravity. He is an avid comics collector. He lives in the Mid-City neighborhood with Michelle. He evacuates but is committed to the city and returns afterward to reestablish his life.
•Michelle, a protagonist, is a white female with short, dark hair. Like Leo, with whom she lives, she is in her twenties and was raised in New Orleans. She works as a gymnastics instructor and a nightclub waitress at TwiRoPa, which closes permanently after Katrina. She evacuates but returns afterward.
•Abbas (Hamid in the Web comic), a protagonist, is an Iranian man with dark hair, a mustache, and a short beard. He is married, with two children, and lives in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. He has lived in the New Orleans area for years and runs a convenience store in the Uptown neighborhood. His family evacuates, but Abbas stays to protect his store and experiences the horrendous flooding.
•Darnell (Mansell in the Web comic), a protagonist, is an African American man with a bald head. Darnell is curious about hurricanes and weathers the storm with Abbas, his friend. He becomes ill during the story.
•Kwame (Kevin in the Web comic), a protagonist, is an African American teenager with short, dark hair and a trim mustache and beard. He lives in New Orleans East, which is primarily suburban in appearance. His father is a minister. Kwame evacuates and experiences the displacement faced by many former residents of New Orleans.
•Doctor Brobson, a.k.a. The Doctor, a protagonist, is an older white male with glasses. He is a medical doctor living in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Knowing that his home has withstood previous hurricanes, the Doctor remains and holds a “hurricane party.” He observes the hurricane’s aftermath in the French Quarter.
Artistic Style
Both the Web comic and print editions begin with panoramic views of the approaching storm. There is no dialogue, only captions indicating places and dates. People are shown only at long range. The horror is depersonalized, contrasting with the intense personalization of suffering shown later. Characters are the focus in the rest of the work. Backgrounds often have little detail and are sometimes dispensed with altogether. However, depicted backgrounds are realistic and accurate, as Neufeld worked from photographs or from information supplied by the characters.
The art style is minimalist and owes much to the European “clear-line” drawing style pioneered by Hergé (Georges Prosper Remi), the Belgian comics artist who created The Adventures of Tintin. In this style, individual lines have uniform importance. No hatching is used, and contrast is downplayed. Strong colors and illuminated shadows are accompanied by realistic backgrounds. Another of Neufeld’s influences is Joe Sacco, who modifies the clear-line technique in his black-and-white comic book work. A.D. has the detail of a black-and-white comic, although selective coloration adds much to the story. Sacco also does detailed background research and focuses on human interest stories with larger political ramifications, and his influence in these areas is evident in A.D.
In keeping with this clear, simple art style and focus on human stories, Neufeld minimizes the number of lines he uses and accentuates his pencil work with freehand inking. He uses images, such as a Spider-Man action figure floating facedown in a bathtub, to foreshadow coming events. A varying color scheme sets the mood. The prehurricane period is marked by bright oranges and yellows, but the colors shift to purple and yellow-green as fear builds and people evacuate. The storm is depicted in watery blue-greens, while the storm’s aftermath is shown with a reddish or sickly yellow-green tint.
Themes
The primary theme of A.D. is loss. Neufeld addresses this at the level of individuals, of New Orleans communities, and of the entire city. For the people depicted in the comic, losses include homes, important personal belongings, and livelihoods. Most powerful is the loss of safety and peace of mind. This is poignantly illustrated when Denise’s mother resists getting new furniture because she does not want to have “more to lose.”
Survival and rebirth are also important themes. Individuals such as Denise, Abbas, and Darnell survive the hurricane itself but pay a physical and psychological toll. Darnell temporarily loses his good health. Though he reopens his store, Abbas remarks that he “lost three years.” Denise puts it even more personally when she says that part of her “was swept away in that hurricane.” Even evacuees, such as Leo, lose parts of their personal histories that cannot be replaced.
However, these losses do not prevent rebirth. Abbas does reopen his store. Kwame’s family returns to rebuild their home, their church, and their spiritual community. Strangers replace Leo’s comics. Denise, unemployed before Katrina, obtains a job and returns to New Orleans. Businesses and cultural centers have closed and the city’s population has plummeted, but new opportunities also arise.
Impact
Since the 1960’s, underground “comix,” such as those produced by Robert Crumb, have shown that comic book-style material could feature adult subject matter and attract sophisticated audiences. This trend began to enter the mainstream in the 1980’s. Although A.D. does not contain graphic sex or violence, as do many comix and comix-influenced works, it is a literate story that confronts adult issues and adult themes. There is an undercurrent, especially in Denise’s story, of criticism of the government’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. Thus, the book fits well into the modern comic book period. Some critics have specifically linked Neufeld’s work to comix pioneer Crumb, and Neufeld invites the link himself when discussing his influences. He even uses the word “comix” on his Web site to describe his work.
As a Web comic, A.D. was widely recognized, including on National Public Radio (NPR), as a work of journalistic excellence. Newsweek, and newspapers such as the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Toronto Star, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today, lauded A.D. for capturing the pain of the Katrina experience. The hardcover was reviewed favorably in many of the same venues, as well as in the Wall Street Journal. Word Balloon placed it among the top ten graphic novels of 2009. It was a Salon.com “Critic’s Pick” for 2009 and was listed as one of 2009’s Top Books by Mother Jones magazine. Neil Gaiman included an excerpt in The Best American Comics 2010.
Further Reading
Johnson, Mat, and Simon Gane. Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story (2010).
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (1986, 1991).
Bibliography
Gustines, George Gene. “Graphic Memories of Katrina’s Ordeal.” The New York Times, August 23, 2009, p. C1.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Hurricane Katrina: An Illustrated Story of Survival.” Interview by Linda Wertheimer. National Public Radio, September 3, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112506242.
Neufeld, Josh. “Post-Katrina Depicted in Comic Strips.” Interview by Farai Chideya. National Public Radio, August 24, 2007. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13928549.