Josh Neufeld

Last updated
Josh Neufeld
Neufeld drawing table.jpg
Neufeld in c. 2005
BornJoshua Michael Rosler Neufeld
(1967-08-09) August 9, 1967 (age 56)
New York City, U.S.
Area(s) Cartoonist, Penciller
Notable works
 A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
The Influencing Machine
A Few Perfect Hours
American Splendor
Collaborators Harvey Pekar
Brooke Gladstone
Rob Walker
David Greenberger
Awards Knight-Wallace Fellowship, 2012–2013
Xeric Award, 2004
www.joshcomix.com

Josh Neufeld (born August 9, 1967) is an alternative cartoonist known for his comics journalism work on subjects like graphic medicine, equity, and technology; as well as his collaborations with writers like Harvey Pekar and Brooke Gladstone. He is the writer/artist of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge , and the illustrator of The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media .

Contents

Biography and career highlights

Born in New York to parents Leonard Neufeld and artist Martha Rosler, [1] Neufeld spent most of his youth in California (San Diego and San Francisco), and then moved back to New York City during his teenage years. He graduated from the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in 1985 and Oberlin College with a B.A. in Art History in 1989. [2] Shortly after graduating from college, he spent over a year backpacking with his then-girlfriend (now his wife) through Southeast Asia and Central Europe, and living for a period in the Czech Republic. [2]

As a child, Neufeld's influences were Belgian cartoonist Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin , Goscinny & Uderzo's Asterix , [2] and the Curt Swan-Murphy Anderson issues of Action Comics and Superman . Later in life, as he gravitated toward alternative comics, Neufeld was inspired by the writing and work of Scott McCloud, Chris Ware, and Dan Clowes; and the real-life stories of Joe Sacco, Harvey Pekar, and David Greenberger.

In 2010, Neufeld was invited to act as a representative of the United States Department of State's Speaker and Specialist program, which sends Americans abroad as cultural "ambassadors." [3] In March 2010, Neufeld spent two weeks in Burma as part of the program; in October he visited Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain, and Israel/Palestine as part of the same program. [4]

Neufeld was a 2012–2013 Knight-Wallace Fellow in journalism at the University of Michigan; [5] he was the first so-called "comics journalist" to be awarded a Knight-Wallace Fellowship. [6]

In October 2014, Neufeld was a Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, where he led a three-week residency for mid-career cartoonists. [7]

Neufeld is also a comics educator. He is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts, [8] as well as the faculty of Michigan State University. [9] He is the lead faculty mentor for the Comics & Graphic Narratives concentration at the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program of Lasell University. [10] He was a visiting professor at CUNY Queens College in the spring of 2017, and returned in the same role in spring 2020. [11]

Neufeld currently resides with his wife, the writer Sari Wilson, and their daughter, in Brooklyn, New York.

Works

Creator-owned titles

Neufeld was awarded a 2004 grant from the Xeric Foundation for his graphic novel, A Few Perfect Hours (and Other Stories From Southeast Asia & Central Europe), a collection of real-life stories about his travel experiences. He is the creator of the comic book series The Vagabonds (published by Alternative Comics), and co-creator (with high school friend Dean Haspiel) of Keyhole (Millennium/Modern and Top Shelf Productions) and (with R. Walker) Titans of Finance: True Tales of Money and Business (Alternative Comics).

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

In 2005, shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Neufeld spent three weeks as an American Red Cross volunteer in Biloxi, Mississippi. The blog he kept about that experience turned into a self-published book, Katrina Came Calling (2006). [2] Later, Neufeld was asked to write the introduction to a book called Signs of Life: Surviving Katrina, a collection of photos of the hand-made signs that appeared in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina. Profits from sales of the book went two organizations still working in the area: Common Ground Relief and Hands On Network.

In 2007–2008, Neufeld wrote and drew A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, an online graphic novel serialized on SMITH Magazine. A.D. tells the real stories of seven New Orleans residents and their experiences during and after Hurricane Katrina. A.D. received extensive press coverage, including in such venues as the Los Angeles Times, [12] the New Orleans Times-Picayune, [13] the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, [14] Rolling Stone, Wired.com, [15] BoingBoing, [16] the Toronto Star, [17] and National Public Radio's "News & Notes". Through this work, and his later collaboration, The Influencing Machine, Neufeld leads an intense reflection about the way the media treats information. [18]

In May 2008, it was announced that a four-color hardcover edition of A.D. would be published by Pantheon Graphic Novels. [19] The book included 25% more story and art, as well as extensive revisions to the material from the webcomic. [20] Debuting on August 18, 2009, shortly before Hurricane Katrina's fourth anniversary, A.D. went on to become a New York Times bestseller. [21]

Other publications

His comics have also been published in The Boston Globe , the Chicago Sun-Times , Columbia Journalism Review , World War 3 Illustrated , FSB , The Village Voice , The Chicago Reader , In These Times , and many other venues. Neufeld's illustrations have appeared in The New York Times , the Wall Street Journal , Forbes , Nickelodeon Magazine , the Austin American-Statesman , the Washington City Paper , New York Press , and many other publications.

Neufeld was one of the founding members of the online comics collective ACT-I-VATE. In 2014 he joined the comics collective Hang Dai Editions (of whose founding members was his long-time friend Dean Haspiel). [22]

Neufeld co-wrote the "motion comics" element of the ABC News documentary Earth 2100 , which premiered on ABC on June 2, 2009. Neufeld worked on the sections of the documentary dealing with the fictional character "Lucy," who witnesses the apocalyptic effects of climate change and societal upheaval during the course of the 21st century. [23]

His comics were introduced in France through Angoulême's International Comic Festival in 2012 and 2015. [18]

Collaboration

Neufeld was a long-time artist for Pekar’s American Splendor , and has collaborated with many writers from outside the comics world, including poets, memoirists, and theatre groups. Other comics writers Neufeld has illustrated stories for include Pekar's wife Joyce Brabner (in American Splendor), [24] and Greenberger in Duplex Planet Illustrated (published by Fantagraphics), [25] [26] R. Walker (in Titans of Finance), [27] and Peter Ross (in a self-published mini-comic called Mortgage Your Soul). [28] [29]

Neufeld's collaborations with writers from outside the traditional comics world tend to be formalist and experimental in spirit. He has adapted a number of poet Nick Flynn's pieces into comics, which have appeared in various literary journals and websites. [30] [31] [32] Neufeld is an Associate Artist with the New York-based theatre collective The Civilians, [33] and has adapted portions of a number of their plays into comic book form. He has also collaborated with writer Eileen Myles, [34] and Neufeld's mother, artist Martha Rosler. [35] [36] A special issue (subtitled "Of Two Minds") of Neufeld's comics series The Vagabonds was dedicated to his many collaborations. [37]

Neufeld collaborated with journalist Brooke Gladstone on The Influencing Machine , published by W.W. Norton. Gladstone describes the book as "a treatise on the relationship between us and the news media, ... a manifesto on the role of the press in American history as told through a cartoon version of [me] that would preside over each page." [38] The Influencing Machine was released in hardcover in May 2011. A paperback edition with a new cover was released in May 2012. A tenth anniversary edition, with a new cover, interior revisions, new material, and a new afterword, was released in January 2021. [39]

In 2019–2020, Neufeld and his longtime friend/collaborator Dean Haspiel delved into podcasting, producing Scene by Scene with Josh & Dean, a deep dive into the movie American Splendor and the two artists' relationships with Harvey Pekar. [40]

Selected bibliography

Neufeld's website features a complete bibliography.

Graphic novels and creator-owned works

Comics journalism stories

Awards

Notes

  1. ↑ GOODMAN, ELYSSA (Nov 7, 2018). "Martha Rosler's 'Irrespective': The iconic Brooklyn-based artist celebrates a new survey of her work at the Jewish Museum". ...her son Josh (Neufeld, now an established cartoonist and graphic novelist)....
  2. 1 2 3 4 Richardson, Clem. "Comics Artist Has Serious Mission," New York Daily News (June 23, 2006). [ permanent dead link ] Accessed Feb. 24, 2009.
  3. ↑ Cavna, Michael. "State Dept. sends Katrina cartoonist JOSH NEUFELD to Mideast to 'showcase cultural freedoms'," "Comic Riffs" column, Washington Post online (Oct. 8, 2010).
  4. ↑ Rogers, Vaneta. "State Dept. Brings U.S. Creators to Algerian Comics Festival," Newsarama (Nov. 30, 2010).
  5. ↑ Arrant, Chris. "Cartoonist Josh Neufeld receives Knight-Wallace Fellowship in Journalism," Comic Book Resources: Robot 6 (May 11, 2012).
  6. ↑ Spurgeon, Tom. "Cartoonist Josh Neufeld Win UM Knight-Wallace Fellowship," Comics Reporter (May 11, 2012).
  7. ↑ "Josh Neufeld, Graphic Novelist," Archived 2014-10-23 at the Wayback Machine Atlantic Center for the Arts website. Accessed Oct. 22, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Cartoonist, Comics Journalist Josh Neufeld," School of Visual Arts faculty website. Retrieved Apr. 22, 2020.
  9. ↑ "Josh Neufeld: MSU School of Journalism," Michigan State University website. Retrieved Apr. 22, 2020.
  10. ↑ Jones, Laura. "Josh Neufeld". Lasell University. Retrieved May 24, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Josh Neufeld," Queens College Department of English website. Retrieved Apr. 22, 2020.
  12. ↑ Boucher, Geoff (August 27, 2007). "A flood of emotions in a Katrina comics serial." Los Angeles Times .
  13. ↑ MacCash, Doug (August 27, 2007). "Comic-book Katrina." New Orleans Times-Picayune
  14. ↑ Rajagopalan, Megha (August 25, 2007). "Words and Pictures: Online strips will make you think." Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  15. ↑ Jatras, Todd (May 1, 2007). "Following New Orleans After the Deluge." Wired.com
  16. ↑ Frauenfelder, Mark (June 7, 2007). "Webcomic about Hurricane Katrina." BoingBoing
  17. ↑ Mudhar, Raju (August 19, 2007). "Katrina captured on the computer screen." Toronto Star
  18. 1 2 Kuhn-Kenned, Fleur & Daniel Kennedy. "L'oeil du Cyclone," L'Intermède (Feb. 2015) (in French)
  19. ↑ "Pantheon to Publish A.D.:New Orleans After the Deluge: Josh Neufeld's Real-Life Saga," ICv2, May 8, 2008. Retrieved on June 4, 2008.
  20. ↑ Jaffe, Sarah. "Webcomics: Josh Neufeld & A.D., Newsarama (Jan. 29, 2009). Archived 2009-02-01 at the Wayback Machine Accessed Apr. 20, 2009.
  21. ↑ "Graphic Books: Hardcover Graphic Books," New York Times (September 3, 2009).
  22. ↑ "Josh Neufeld Joins Hang Dai Editions, Brings Comics Journalism The Vagabonds To MoCCA Fest". Bleeding Cool . March 13, 2014.
  23. ↑ Marschall, Rick. "Comic Creators Play Big Role In Tonight’s ‘Earth 2100’ Special," SplashPage MTV (June 2, 2009).
  24. ↑ "Be Careful Not to Pull too Hard on Loose Ends" (story by Brabner), American Splendor: Windfall #2 (Dark Horse, 1995).
  25. ↑ "Pivot" (story by Greenberger), Duplex Planet Illustrated #10, (Fantagraphics, 1995)
  26. ↑ "Ed Veshecco, Manhole Guard" (story by Greenberger), Duplex Planet Illustrated #12 (Fantagraphics, 1995)
  27. ↑ McGeehan, Patrick. "Dumbed Down on Wall St.: Junk Finance, With Pictures," New York Times (June 3, 2001).
  28. ↑ Row, Heath. "From the Reading Pile XIV: Part 2," Heath Row's Media Diet (November 29, 2002).
  29. ↑ Spurgeon, Tom. "Minimalism Archives #11 -- Round-Up: Once and For All We Have Decided to Side with the Many Minimalism," The Comics Reporter (December 24, 2004).
  30. ↑ "Bag of Mice" (adaptation of Flynn poem), World Literature Today (Mar-Apr. 2007).
  31. ↑ "Father Outside" (adaptation of Flynn poem), The Common Review (Fall 2004).
  32. ↑ "Cartoon Physics, Part I" (adaptation of Flynn poem), CrossRoads: The Journal of the Poetry Society of America (Fall 2001).
  33. ↑ "The Company," The Civilians website. Archived 2009-02-28 at the Wayback Machine Accessed May 26, 2009.
  34. ↑ Provincetown Arts (2001).
  35. ↑ "Scenes From an Illicit War: From Planet Invisible" (story by Rosler) System Error: War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (Silvana Editoriale, 2007)
  36. ↑ ""Our Future?", a billboard produced for the show "How Many Billboards," put on by the MAK Center in 2010". Archived from the original on 2015-05-17. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
  37. ↑ The Vagabonds #2: "Of Two Minds" (Alternative Comics, October 2006).
  38. ↑ Neyfakh, Leon. "Norton Buys Graphic Media Manifesto," New York Observer (May 26, 2009).
  39. ↑ "The Influencing Machine," W.W. Norton website. Retrieved Feb. 14, 2021.
  40. ↑ Maveal, Chloe (Aug 8, 2019). "Podcast Spotlight: Scene By Scene with Josh and Dean: The minute-by-minute comics history breakdown you didn't know you needed". The Beat.
  41. ↑ kstewart (August 8, 2023). "NABJ Announces 2023 Salute to Excellence Award Winners". National Association of Black Journalists.
  42. ↑ Comic Nurse (July 18, 2023). "GMIC 2023 Awards for Excellence in Graphic Medicine Announcement". GraphicMedicine.org. The judges loved this comic. Josh Neufeld's graphic journalism is performed with masterful skill. In this piece he manages to create a brilliantly engaging graphic essay that draws the reader into the action, while avoiding excessive narration or resorting to talking heads. The story sets modern-day anxieties about COVID vaccination against historical government malpractice in a way that sympathetically articulates the viewpoint of the vaccine skeptics, while reinforcing the importance of vaccination in combating the pandemic.
  43. ↑ Green, Michael J.; Wolf, Kevin (December 26, 2023). "Best of Graphic Medicine – The 2023 Graphic Medicine International Collective Awards". JAMA . 330 (24): 2323–2325. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.24478.
  44. ↑ "2023 Best of the Press" (PDF). Illinois Press Association. June 2023. p. 20.
  45. ↑ Ewing, Mike (April 5, 2023). "These are the finalists for the 2022 Peter Lisagor Awards". Chicago Headline Club.
  46. ↑ Press release. "Nominees Announced for 2012 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards: Selections Reflect Wide Diversity in Industry," Archived 2012-04-07 at the Wayback Machine San Diego Comic Con International website (Apr. 4, 2012).
  47. ↑ "2010 HARVEY AWARDS Nominees Announced," Newsarama (July 12, 2010).
  48. ↑ "2010 Eisner Nominations Encompass Wide Range of Works," Archived 2008-10-10 at the Wayback Machine Comic-Con website (Apr. 2010)
  49. ↑ "Harry Chapin Media Awards Finalists Announced," Archived 2010-06-29 at the Wayback Machine WHY website (April 15, 2010).

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References

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