MTV.com chooses A.D. as best non-fiction comic of '09!

MTV.com chooses Josh Neufeld’s A.D. as the best non-fiction comic of 2009!

“By chronicling the stories of seven very different survivors of Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans floods, Josh Neufeld provides one of the best examples of comics as journalism to hit the shelves this year. With stories that are equal parts inspirational, thought-provoking and, in some cases, terribly frustrating, “A.D.” is collective memory that goes a long way toward helping us learn from our mistakes instead of repeating them.”

Read more and find out what other comics were picked!

Asterios Polyp - Best Book of 2009!

Modern Tonic chooses David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp as the lead book in its round-the-world travelogue of the best books of 2009, saying “Asterios Polyp will cause comic-book buffs to swoon, sure, but the narrative — after a fire, an arrogant architect slowly begins to rebuild his own life — makes it much more than a pretty picture book.”

READ IT!

Dash Shaw is chosen for SUNDANCE

Sundance has announced the 12 projects they have chosen for the 2010 January Screenwriters lab. Why should you care? Well because the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program has hand picked some of the most original filmmakers of the last 28 years, including a Pantheon author!

Dash Shaw (author of the upcoming Bodyworld) was chosen for his film Slobs and Nags. Told with hand-drawn animation, a disconnected family is thrown into chaos when the scientist father loses the test subject of his experiment with appearance-altering technology.

Read more: 12 Projects Chosen For January 2010 Sundance Screenwriters Labs

My Thoughts on Adrian Tomine

I recently went on an Adrian Tomine reading binge and I have to say, I'm impressed, but not blown away. I initially bought a copy of Shortcomings after purchasing a bag at The Strand that Tomine designed. After reading all of his work, I'm not so sure I'd recommend reading Shortcomings first - it has a slightly whiny, kind of annoying storyline, and I didn't sympathize with the main characters at all. It follows Ben Tanaka, who is in the process of falling out of love with his longtime (and beautiful) Japanese girlfriend Miko. She constantly accuses him of lusting after white girls and eventually moves out of their shared apartment in San Francisco to work in New York. The story takes an interesting turn at the end, but for the most part is pretty dull. So why am I even mentioning this book? Because Tomine is an excellent writer, and you should not judge him based on Shortcomings, even though it is, for some reason, his most popular work.

Lucky for me, I didn't give up on Tomine altogether. I went on to read Summer Blonde which is a collection of four stories. My favorite was called "Alter Ego" about a once successful but now washed up novelist who, while in pursuit of material for his second book, seeks out the girl he was obsessed with in high school (and winds up dating her sister, who IS still in high school).

After Summer Blonde, I made my way to Sleepwalk (another story collection). This book is rather depressing - the main themes in here are loss and loneliness. My favorite stories were "The Connecting Thread", where a woman believes she is stalked through personal ads and "Summer Job" which shows a slacker middle class kid who is on summer vacation from UC Berkeley (As a resident of Berkeley, Tomine sets many of his stories in or near the Bay Area.) working as a delivery man for a small, crappy company and has absolutely no concept of how important having a job is to the other employees (who don't get to ship off back to college or have their mom pay their bills). This story reminded me of my brother.

Recently, I just finished reading my last book on my Adrian Tomine list - SCRAPBOOK, which is a collection of random comics, illustrations, magazine covers, doodles, posters (he did a famous Weezer poster that I used to have) and actual excerpt from his personal sketchbook. This was cool to see, but unless you're a huge Adrian Tomine fan, I'd say there's absolutely no need to purchase this. My favorite comic inside was "A Rock and Roll Dream", where a girl continuously keeps getting dumped, but misses the music from the old albums she used to listen to with the ex-bf, rather than the guy himself.

While I do agree with Vibe magazine that "Adrian Tomine captures the pathos of young adulthood with vignettes exquisitely rendered in a sharp, comic-noir style", I'm still not 100% convinced that he's the "Boy Wonder of comics" that Daniel Clowes referred to him as.

See for yourself - and post a comment!

Persepolis and Jimmy Corrigan Top Books of the Decade

The Times of London just announced their Best Books of the Decade with Pantheon titles in abundance: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi coming in at #2and Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware at #79.

Asterios Polyp - The Perfect Gift Book

Three independent area booksellers visited The Brian Lehrer Show this morning and left their recommendations for holiday gift suggestions.

Christina Onorati of WORD Bookstore suggested our own Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli!

Be sure to stock up in time for the holidays!

Great comic gifts for the holidays!

The holidays are just around the corner and if you're like me, you can't even begin to think about what to buy each person on your list. When you're stumped about what to purchase this holiday season, consider this--

BOOKS MAKE GREAT GIFTS!

Just think about it:

• You can buy 10 hardcovers for the price of an iPhone
• A book costs less than a movie and popcorn
• A book has the potential to change someone's life
• Reading a book lasts longer than wearing a new sweater (and you never grow out of it)
• A book is the easiest gift to wrap
• A book is the easiest item to re-gift!

These are some of the books I plan to give as gifts this holiday season. And don't forget to get something for yourself while you're browsing!


Until next time, happy holidays and happy reading!

HOLIDAY GIFT DIRECTORY
For the activist

The perfect gifts for your politically and socially conscious friends!

I Live Here (Mia Kirshner) is a visually stunning narrative - told through journals, stories, images, and graphic novellas - in which the lives of refugees and displaced people become at once personal and global. Bearing witness to stories that are too often overlooked, it is a raw and intimate journey through crises in four corners of the world: war in Chechnya, ethnic cleansing in Burma, globalization in Mexico, and AIDS in Malawi.

• Order your copy here

Cancer Vixen (Marisa Acocella Marchetto), now available in paperback, is the groundbreaking graphic memoir that has inspired breast cancer patients to fight back - and do it with style. One of Time.com's top ten graphic novels of the year, with a taboo-breaking sense of humor, Cancer Vixen tells the story of Marchetto's eleven-month, ultimately triumphant battle against breast cancer - from diagnosis to cure, and every challenging step in between.

• Order your copy here
• Read an interview with the author
• Watch an inspirational video for The Cancer Vixen Fund
• Visit the author's website

After spending three weeks as an American Red Cross volunteer in Biloxi, Mississippi, cartoonist Josh Neufeld created A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, a masterful portrait of a city under siege. Depicting seven extraordinary true stories of survival in the days leading up to and following Hurricane Katrina, A.D. presents a city in chaos and shines a bright, profoundly human light on the tragedies and triumphs that took place within it.

• Order your copy here
• Visit Josh Neufeld's website

For the teen

Everyone is familiar with the name Marjane Satrapi these days, and now you can have both volumes of her best-selling, internationally acclaimed comic memoir in one package - The Complete Persepolis. Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with humor and wisdom - Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded graphic artists at work today.

• Order your copy here, and be sure to check out Marjane's other graphic novels: Chicken with Plums and Embroideries.

A memoir that should be read in every school, here is the definitive edition of the book acclaimed as "the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" (Wall Street Journal) and "the first masterpiece in comic book history" (The New Yorker). It now appears as it was originally envisioned by the author: The Complete Maus.

• Order your copy here

Hailed by Time as "another of his hilariously slightly off-center worlds that have a vague sense of dread about them. Kind of like where you live," Ice Haven is a brilliant graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, author of Ghost World (for which he received an Oscar nomination for the screen adaptation!).

• Order your copy here

For the superhero fan:
Attention collectors!! The two hottest genres in comics gleefully collide head-on, as the most beloved American superhero gets the coolest Japanese manga makeover ever in Geoff Spear & Chip Kidd's Bat-Manga! This is The Dynamic Duo as you've never seen them: with a distinctly Japanese twist as they battle aliens, mutated dinosaurs, and villains who won't stay dead. And as a bonus: Jiro Kuwata, the manga master who originally wrote and drew this material, is interviewed by Chip exclusively in this book. More than just a dazzling novelty, Bat-Manga! is an invaluable, long-lost chapter in the history of one of the most timeless figures in comics.

The deluxe, expanded, and limited hardcover edition has a distinctive cover, full-color printed endpapers, and an amazing extra adventure written by Jiro Kuwata (not included in the paperback), about a band of rogue alien robot art thieves at large in Gotham City.

• Order your copy of the limited edition hardcover
• Order your copy of the trade paperback

For the sci-fi geek:
Meet Cole: hapless space rogue, part-time smuggler, on a path to being full-time dead. Follow his adventures through a delightfully absurd science-fiction universe, where the artificial intelligence is stupid, dust motes carry branding messages, and middle-management zombies have overrun a corporate training satellite. In the spirit of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, The Sheriff of Yrnameer is sci-fi comedy at its best--mordant, raucously funny, and a thrilling page-turner.

• Order your copy here

The setting: suburban Seattle, the mid-1970s. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the area's teenagers, transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested in any number of ways - from the hideously grotesque to the subtle - but once you've got it, that's it. There's no turning back. Winner of the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz Awards, Black Hole (Charles Burns) is as hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying.

• Order your copy here

For the New Yorker
We still can't get you a seat at The Waverly Inn, but we can bring you the wonderful, witty mural by Edward Sorel that graces its walls. Sorel - whose caricatures and drawings regularly appear in The New Yorker and on its cover - chose forty Greenwich Village greats from the past 150 years to cavort in bacchanalian splendor. Each of the 40 makes a solo appearance in these pages alongside a charming, telling vignette of his or her life by Dorothy Gallagher. Then, the entire mural appears in a foldout at the back of the book. Here you will find Edna St. Vincent Millay, Jackson Pollack, James Baldwin, Thelonius Monk, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Andy Warhol, Fran Lebowitz, Margaret Sanger, Marlon Brando, and many others.
The Mural at the Waverly Inn is an enduring delight to treasure, and the perfect gift for this holiday season.

• Order your copy here

Perfect for your coffee table - big gift books that are guaranteed to be enjoyed:
"It's as if John Updike had discovered a bag of art supplies and LSD. Elegant, deceptively simple line work and nearly subliminal color symbolism make everything go down like candy." --Entertainment Weekly

The triumphant return of one of comics' greatest talents, Asterios Polyp is an engrossing story of one man's search for love, meaning, sanity, and perfect architectural proportions. An epic story long awaited, and well worth the wait. This is David Mazzucchelli's masterpiece: a great American graphic novel.

• Order your copy here

One of the most promising young talents in cartooning makes his debut with a dazzling collection--part freakish dreamlife, part quirk-o-rama autobiography, all genius. My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down is David Heatley's life story told in six different but connected narrative threads. Every inch of this book is filled with visceral art and emotionally resonant storytelling, that is at once stunning, truthful, and uncomfortably hilarious.

• Order your copy here

Free Pizza at B&N Greenwich Village - served by the "Cancer Vixen" herself!

Marisa Acocella Marchetto will be reading from Cancer Vixen, now on sale from Pantheon Books, on Friday, October 23 at 7:30 pm at Barnes & Noble Greenwich Village. Featuring a PowerPoint presentation, book signing, and free pizza from Greenwich Village’s Scuderia, this event is not to be missed.

“Marchetto is an inspiration, and her story is one that is definitely worth reading” (Sacramento Book Review).

Order a copy of Cancer Vixen

Judith Jones Tour

Check out Judith Jones, author of The Pleasures of Cooking for One, on tour in the following locations, and be sure to read her blog, as well:

10/22/2009 POLITICS & PROSE BKSTR, INC.
5015 CONNECTICUT AVENUE NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20008
7:00 p.m.

10/28/2009 BOSTON UNIVERSITY SHOWROOM
808 COMMONWEALTH AVE
BOSTON, MA 02215
6:00 p.m.

11/10/2009 The New School, Woolman Hall
66 W. 12th Street
New York, NY
6:30 p.m.

11/17/2009 NORTHSHIRE BOOKSTORE
4869 MAIN STREET
MANCHESTER center, VT 05255
7:00 p.m.

11/18/2009 NORWICH BOOKSTORE
291 MAIN ST.
NORWICH, VT 05055
7:00 p.m.

11/19/2009 RIVER RUN BOOKSTORE
20 CONGRESS STREET
PORTSMOUTH, NH 03801
7:00 p.m.

A recipe guaranteed not to give you heartburn

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic
7 large tomatos
1 package linguine
½ cup olive oil
1 cup fresh chopped basil leaves
Salt
Hot red pepper flakes

After seeing Julie & Julia, I had a burning desire to read all books by Nora Ephron and start cooking like a fiend. About a month ago, I finally finished her semi-autobiographical novel Heartburn. Yes, this was the book that was later made into a movie with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep (and no, I can’t imagine either of them looking like the main characters in the book). In the novel, the protagonist, Rachel Samstat, is a cookbook writer and host of her own cooking show, so there are a bunch of simple recipes sprinkled throughout. I decided to try my hand at LINGUINE ALLA CECCA. It’s a hot pasta with a cold tomato-basil sauce. According to Nora, it’s “so light and delicate that it’s almost like eating a salad” and “has to be made in the summer when tomatoes are fresh.” (I actually cooked this at the end of August, so technically it was still summer) I started out by picking seven fresh tomatoes straight off the vine (though I must say, I think it would be even better with a carton of cherry tomatoes). The recipe only calls for five large tomatoes, but it didn’t seem like enough. Then you boil the tomatoes for a minute or two and put them to the side.

Next, pour ½ a cup of olive oil into a bowl, along with two diced up cloves of garlic. The recipe says to take the garlic out at the end, but I chose to leave it in and I think it made it more flavorful. Add 1 cup of fresh chopped basil leaves, a few pinches of salt and a few pinches of hot red pepper flakes (I put a bit more than a few pinches – it depend on how spicy you want it to be). Once the tomatoes have boiled, peel, seed, chop them up and add to the mix. Put the concoction in the refrigerator for a few hours (I let it sit for about two hours exactly).

Boil one pound of linguine, drain and then toss it in with the cold tomato mix and serve in a big bowl.

This is a very straightforward and easy pasta dish for people who aren’t the most advanced cooks (like myself).


To order your copy of Heartburn (and believe me, the book is much more stimulating than the recipe), click here.

PEN American Center Event coming up - Get your tix now!

Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the “War on Terror”

When: Tuesday, October 13
Where: The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 East 7th St., NYC
What time: 7 p.m.

With Matthew Alexander, Jonathan Ames, K. Anthony Appiah, Paul Auster, Ishmael Beah, Don DeLillo, Eve Ensler, Jenny Holzer, A.M. Homes, Jameel Jaffer, Susanna Moore, Jack Rice, Amrit Singh, and Art Spiegelman

Tickets: $15/$10 for PEN/ACLU Members and students with valid ID at www.smarttix.com. Tickets may also be purchased at the door.

PEN and the ACLU will join forces to address the acts of torture and abuse carried out on behalf of the United States government since 9/11. At a time when the world’s eyes are on America and the Obama administration has taken some important steps toward addressing the abuses that have occurred over the past eight years, writers and artists will take the stage with lawyers, a former U.S. interrogator, and other special guests.

In an evening of readings and responses, these Members and friends of PEN will read from the recently-released secret documents that have brought these abuses to light—memos, declassified communications, and testimonies by detainees—and reflect on how we can move forward as a nation.

This event is a first step in the long process of national reflection and reconciliation.

David Heatley video

Watch David Heatley's (author of MY BRAIN IS HANGING UPSIDE DOWN) new music video "Suburban White Girls". It features the work of 34 artists from all over the world. The song is from my "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down" EP, released by WonderSound Records in 2008 on iTunes. The original song was written when Heatley was 19 years old and recorded on a 4-track tape recorder in his bedroom in Teaneck, NJ.

Video of David Mazzucchelli

Watch a rare video of David Mazzucchelli, author of the “haunting and beautiful” (Los Angeles Times) Asterios Polyp, as he discusses his writing process and inspiration for the graphic novel that has the world buzzing.

Chicken with Plums RECIPE!

Are you a huge Marjane Satrapi fan like I am? Curious about what CHICKEN AND PLUMS really are?? Well, I finally found the actual recipe for CHICKEN AND PLUMS, the title of Marjane's most recent publication (Chicken with Plums was just released last April as a trade paperback with a stunning new jacket and you can order your copy here).

Anyway, the recipe is in a middle eastern Knopf cookbook called Arabesque by Claudia Roden:

Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken pieces, breasts or thighs
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
1-3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
salt and paper
9 dark red plums

For the Sauce
4 tablespoons plum jam
1 tablespoon red or white wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, crushed
pinch of chili pepper flakes or gorund chili pepper

In a large skillet, saute the chicken pieces with the garlic in a mixture of butter and oil, over low heat. Cook them for about 10-15 minutes, or until they are no longer pink inside when you cut in with a pointed knife. Season with salt and pepper, and turn the pieces over at least once.

Just before serving, cut the plums in half and ease out the pits. Lift out the chicken pieces and put them to the side while you saute the plums. Cook the plums for 7-10 minutes, turning them over once, until they soften. Return the chicken pices to the pan and heat through.

For the sauce, heat the plum jam with the vinegar in a small saucepan, stir in the garlic and chili flakes or ground chili pepper and cook a few moments longer.

Serve the chicken pieces with the sauce poured over and garnish with the plums.

Serves six

Enjoy! And be sure to pick up your copy of ARABESQUE and CHICKEN WITH PLUMS!

Josh Neufeld Event tonight!

In his raw and sweeping graphic nonfiction masterpiece A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, veteran nonfiction comic book writer and long-time artist for American Splendor Josh Neufeld chronicles the lives of six native New Orleanians in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that he met during his time volunteering with the Red Cross.

Be sure to stop by the following event for your chance to chat with Josh and pick up a copy of the book:

Thursday, September 24th at 7:00 p.m.—Bergen Street Comics, 470 Bergen Street, Brooklyn NY 11217

THINGS WE DIDN'T SEE COMING

Coming soon from Pantheon: THINGS WE DIDN'T SEE COMING, the debut story collection from Steven Amsterdam set in a not-too-distant dystopian future is one to keep a close eye on. Amsterdam has already received fantastic praise in Australia and the Aussies are so fanatical about the book, they recently named it The Age Book of the Year (A major honor)! Random House's own Field Rep, Ann Kingman, raved about the book on Booksonthenightstand.com: "I began a new book the other night, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it....I can't seem to get the landscape out of my head....There are moments of light and humor in this book even amidst the bleak, and perhaps that is why I can think about it as I go about my day. I've been rationing my reading: a story a night. I'm savoring it as it haunts me."

Richly imagined, dark, and darkly comic, these nine stories follow the narrator over three decades as he tries to survive in a world that is becoming more savage as cataclysmic events unfold one after another. In the first story-set on the eve of the millennium, when the world as we know it is still recognizable-we meet the then nine-year-old narrator fleeing the city with his parents, just ahead of a Y2K breakdown of the grid, signaling the world's transformation and decline. The remaining stories capture the strange- sometimes horrific, sometimes unexpectedly funny-circumstances he encounters in the no-longerso- simple act of survival. Yet, in each story, we see that despite the violence and brutality of his days, the narrator retains a hold on his essential humanity.

Send the words "DIDN'T SEE IT COMING" in an email to pantheon@randomhouse.com and the first 3 responses will receive an early galley of the book!

THINGS WE DIDN'T SEE COMING will be available in stores on February 10, 2010, but in the meantime, preorder your copy here.

BODYWORLD coming in Spring 2010!

Check out this trailor for Dash Shaw's new graphic novel BODYWORLD, a darkly fantastical graphic novel about a small town, a lowlife botanist, and a mysterious plant with strange powers. You can read the original webcomic here. Or preorder your copy here



Nominated for a 2009 Eisner Award and with a bold, innovative design, BodyWorld is a mind-blowing blend of science-fiction, classic high school drama, and futuristic what-if. It is at once funny and fearless–and sure to be the graphic novel event of the year.

ROUGH JUSTICE by Alex Ross coming soon

NEWS ALERT: ROUGH JUSTICE to be published in March 2010!

Superstar Alex Ross is back at Pantheon, with all-new DC Comics drawings, featuring his exquisite pencil work. As beautiful as the Alex Ross paintings in Mythology were, the most surprising revelation to many fans were the preparatory sketches, brilliantly rendered in graphite.

This book allows fans to peer over Alex’s shoulder and see his thought process: What makes a composition work? What doesn’t? How many different poses for these characters can you try, to keep making them look fresh? And just how do you reinvent the most beloved and most depicted comics icons in the world?

In Alex’s case, you use a little (actually, a lot) of rough justice...Preorder your copy here

HALF THE SKY - Must read!

Please read this book - it's amazing! Angelina Jolie agrees.

“Women facing poverty, oppression, and violence are usually viewed as victims. Nick Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky shows that unimaginable challenges are often met with breathtaking bravery. These stories show us the power and resilience of women who would have every reason to give up but never do. They will be an inspiration for anyone who reads this book, and a model for those fighting for justice around the world. You will not want to put this book down.”
-Angelina Jolie

“It’s impossible to exaggerate the importance of this book about one of the most serious problems of our time: the worldwide abuse and exploitation of women. In addition to describing the injustices, Kristof and WuDunn show how concerned individuals everywhere are working effectively to empower women and help them overcome adversity. Wonderfully written and vividly descriptive, Half the Sky can and should galvanize support for reform on all levels. Inspiring as it is shocking, this book demands to be read.” -Anne Rice

“I think it’s impossible to stand by and do nothing after reading Half the Sky. It does what we need most, it bears witness to the sheer cruelty that mankind can do to mankind.” --George Clooney

“Half the Sky is a passionate and persuasive plea to all of us to rise up and say ‘No more!’ to the 17th-century abuses to girls and women in the 21st-century world. This is a book that will pierce your heart and arouse your conscience. It is a powerful piece of journalism by two masters of the craft who are tireless in their pursuit of one of the most shameful conditions of our time.”
-Tom Brokaw

“I read Half the Sky in one sitting, staying up until 3 a.m. to do so. It is brilliant and inspirational, and I want to shout about it from the rooftops and mountains. It vividly illustrates how women have turned despair into prosperity and bravely nurtured hope to cultivate a bright future. The book ends with an especially compelling ‘What you can do’ to exhort us all to action.”
-Greg Mortenson, author, Three Cups of Tea

“If you have always wondered whether you can change the world, read this book. Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn have written a brilliant call to arms that describes one of the transcendent injustices in the world today—the brutal treatment of women. They take you to many countries, introduce you to extraordinary women, and tell you their moving tales. Throughout, the tone is practical not preachy and the book’s suggestions as to how you can make a difference are simple, sensible, and yet powerful. The authors vividly describe a terrible reality about the world we live in but they also provide light and hope that we can, in fact, change it.”
-Fareed Zakaria, author, The Post-American World

“An unblinking look at one of the seminal moral challenges of our time. This stirring book is at once a savage indictment of gender inequality in the developing world and an inspiring testament to these women’s courage, resilience, and their struggle for hope and recovery. A devastating and unexpectedly uplifting read.”
-Khaled Hosseini, author, The Kite Runner

“The stories that Kristof and WuDunn share are as powerful as they are heartbreaking. Their insight into gender issues and the role of women in development inspires hope, optimism, and most importantly, the will to change. Both a brutal awakening and an unmistakable call to action, this book should be read by all.”-Melinda Gates

"Passionate yet practical . . . [Half the Sky] is both stirring and sensible . . . This wonderful book combines a denunciation of horrible abuses with clear-eyed hope and some compelling practical strategies. The courageous women described here, and millions more like them, deserve nothing less.” -Martha Nussbaum, The New York Times

AD

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge at McNally Jackson 9/16 w/Josh Neufeld, Editor Lisa Weinert & SMITH's Jeff Newelt! http://bit.ly/ADpanel

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

In his raw and sweeping graphic nonfiction masterpiece A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, veteran nonfiction comic book writer and long-time artist for American Splendor Josh Neufeld chronicles the lives of six native New Orleanians in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that he met during his time volunteering with the Red Cross.

Enter the world of:

Denise, a sixth-generation New Orlinean artist and counselor

The Doctor, who, while not directly affected by the storm, stays behind to help those less fortunate

Hamid and Mansell, who face the storm from the roof of Hamid's family-run market

Kevin, a pastor's son just entering his senior year of high school

Leo and Michelle, a twenty-something couple that grew up in the city.


All of whom face the terrifying and increasingly universal reality that home is not an immutable fact, and question what it would mean to stay or to evacuate. With beautiful illustrations, A.D. presents the characters' stories as they unfold, frame by frame, alongside the building storm, vividly portraying what it means to have to decide to leave everything you know behind.

And here's the best part:
Email the phrase AFTER THE DELUGE, along with your mailing address to pantheon@randomhouse.com and you will automatically enter yourself into a drawing to win a free copy of the book! There will be 3 lucky winners selected at random. Please note: U.S. mailing addresses only.

Be sure to stop by the following events for your chance to chat with Josh and pick up a copy of the book:
Wednesday, September 16, 7:00 p.m.--McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St, NYC. Panel with Josh, Lisa and Jeff Newelt.

Thursday, September 247:00 p.m.--Bergen Street Comics, 470 Bergen Street, Brooklyn NY 11217

Visit Josh Neufeld's website here.

And buy a copy of the book here.

Praise for A.D.:
"A.D. is a sterling example of comics with a social consciousness, and is exactly the kind of thing we need to keep the human dimension of this unimaginable disaster and its ongoing aftermath in the public eye."-- Wired.com
"Referring to A.D. as a 'comic book' is a bit like calling Schindler's List a 'talkie.'"
-- The Los Angeles Times
"A.D.'s ... stunning panels ... retell the harrowing experience of what it was like to live through the disaster."--Rolling Stone
"[A.D.]'s stirring images are sure to linger in memory, perhaps even longer than hours of news footage already have."--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"Josh Neufeld's cultural and class observations are enormously rare in the world of comix subject matter."-- The Comics Journal

SAVE THE DATE: October 28th, 6:30-9:30 at Saint Vincent's Hospital
Have fun. Raise Funds. Help benefit uninsured and underinsured women AND get to meet the Cancer Vixen herself: Marisa Acocella Marchetto. If you'd like to buy a copy of CANCER VIXEN before the event, click here