The third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina has just passed, and now another huge storm — Gustav — is bearing down on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, with forecasts of it hitting the area late Monday. Predicting a hurricane’s path is a very imperfect science, so it’s possible the city may dodge the bullet (as it had so many times in the past—before Katrina). But Katrina taught us that it’s far better to be safe than sorry.

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin called Gustav “the storm of the century” and ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city today. Thousands of people are streaming out of the region as I write this. Things seem to be proceeding much more smoothly this time than in 2005, with government agencies working together to provide transportation options for just about everybody. Trains and buses are ferrying evacuees to Alexandria, Shreveport, and other northern Louisiana locations—and this time people can take their pets. To deter looting, the National Guard plans on sending a lot more troops into the city this time around. As an incentive to get everyone to leave, New Orleans is not providing any “shelters of last resort” (like the Convention Center or the Superdome), which seeing what happened at those places after Katrina might be a good thing. Even though the levees have been repaired and “shored up” since Katrina, they are still not designed to withstand more than a Category 3 hurricane; Gustav could end up as a Category 5.

Our A.D. characters are all preparing for the storm in their own ways. Read the rest of this entry »

On this third anniversary of Katrina, with tropical storm Gustav eerily tracking toward New Orleans, it’s bittersweet to bring you the final chapter of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. Bittersweet because without the incredible, awful events of three years ago, there would be no story to recount. Bittersweet because we’ve come to know and love the six people who Josh Neufeld has so brilliantly channeled to retell this Katrina story. Bittersweet because, three years after the levees and the government failed one of the great American cities, “We’re all not home yet,” as Denise says in one of the final chapter’s final panels.

Above all, A.D., is passionate, personal storytelling that you can’t get anywhere else. In other words: exactly why we started SMITH. Now, we’re wrapping up the story in this space for a great reason: Neufeld is expanding A.D. into a full-length book from Pantheon Books, the people who published Persepolis. The fifteenth and final online installment, “Picking Up The Pieces,” is now up. It’s 24 panels strong, with links to videos featuring many of the characters themselves.

I want to thank Josh for the heart, soul, and hours and hours and hours he poured into a project that is among the finest I’ve ever worked on. Thanks to every reader, blogger, and journalist who believed in A.D. and suggested their audiences give it a look. Thanks to SMITH cofounder, Tim Barkow, for making the comic’s online presence so strong, as well as SMITH comics editor, Jeff Newelt, who introduced me to Josh, and knew he’d be the perfect person for this project. Finally, a special thanks to Denise, the Doctor, Leo, Michelle, Hamid, and Kevin, all of whom courageously and graciously shared their story with all of us.

Here, SMITH editor Larry Smith does his worst Ira Glass impression as he asks A.D. character Leo about the prized comic book collection he lost in the storm. Leo’s response is a thoughtful riff on what these comic stories meant to him growing up—and the importance of letting the past go even as he rebuilds in the present.

A.D. is profiled in this week’s issue of Newsweek, in print in its “Periscope” section. “A.D.” is raw and painful,” writes Jessica Bennett, “down to the detailed depictions of ruined homes and the frenzied dialogue among friends.” The magazine runs one of my personal favorite images that Josh Neufeld has drawn over the course of 13 intense chapters, the scene of a horrified and confused crowd at the Convention Center, wondering why help is not on the way. Read the Newsweek story here. Stay tuned for the final chapter of A.D. on SMITH in two weeks, followed by a vastly expanded version from Pantheon Books in summer 2009.

It’s with bittersweetness that I’m here to tell you that Chapter 13 of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is up. Bittersweet as it’s the penultimate chapter on SMITH, and I’m getting wistful already. We’re wrapping up the story in this space for a great reason: Josh needs to focus on expanding it into a full-length book which will be published by Pantheon Books in summer, 2009. We could not be happier that the story of Denise, Leo, Michelle, Hamid, Kevin, and the Doctor will be told in greater detail and reach a new audience with the help of folks who are the absolute best in the business (they published Persepolis, among others).

In this installment, “If It’s the Last Thing We Ever Do,” Denise and her family are still trapped at the New Orleans Convention Center. Read the rest of this entry »