Similarities between the Hurricane Katrina tragedy and the BP oil spill are, distressingly, many. One of the most striking echoes are the two men ostensibly in charge of the disasters, Michael Brown and Tony Hayward. In a fit of pique last weekend, I drew a little something about the two executives and their glazed, disassociated stares. In the coming weeks, I hope to check in with some of A.D.’s subjects to get their sense of things five years down the road from Katrina and eight weeks down the road from BP.

I’ve created a new category in the A.D. Links and Resources section: Relief Organizations. It’s a list of nonprofits working in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Many of them have specific programs related to the BP oil spill. Check ‘em out now, and do what you can to help.

I just want to go on record to say I’m as horrified and dismayed by the BP oil spill as anyone. I just haven’t had anything brilliant to say about it. Like everyone else, I’ve been a helpless witness to this unfolding disaster.

At first, I was led to believe that the current spill wasn’t anything like the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdex spill. Read the rest of this entry »

I returned home last Friday to find a wonderful surprise waiting for me. Inside a manila envelope postmarked Smithville, Ohio, was a packet of letters from Danny Caine’s 10th-grade English Class at Smithville High School. Mr. Caine explained that he had recently assigned A.D. to his class, and that it had been a rewarding experience for all involved.

As Mr. Caine wrote, "My students were 11 when the storm hit, and so it felt pretty current to them. Yet they were still too young to understand the weightiness of the situation, and A.D. opened their eyes." Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve donated a signed copy of the A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (the book which first appeared as a webcomic on SMITH) to "The Threadheads" for their 2010 raffle. The Threadheads are a group of generous folks who met on the Jazz & Heritage Festival chat board, and since Hurricane Katrina they’ve hosted several charitable projects to give something back to New Orleans. The biggest one is the Threadhead Raffle, offering music and New Orleans-related items as prizes. Read the rest of this entry »