Josh Neufeld
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.
Josh Neufeld
Joshua Michael Rosler Neufeld
August 9, 1967
New York City, U.S.
A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
The Influencing Machine
A Few Perfect Hours
American Splendor
Knight-Wallace Fellowship, 2012–2013
Xeric Award, 2004
Biography and career highlights[edit]
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[edit]
Creator-owned titles[edit]
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[edit]
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.
Collaboration[edit]
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]