Josh Neufeld

American cartoonist

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.

Born in New York to parents Leonard Neufeld and artist Martha Rosler, 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. 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. 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. Neufeld was a 2012–2013 Knight Wallace Fellow in journalism at the University of Michigan; he was the first so called "comics journalist" to be awarded a Knight Wallace Fellowship. 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. Neufeld is also a comics educator. He is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts, as well as the faculty of Michigan State University. He is the lead faculty mentor for the Comics & Graphic Narratives concentration at the Solstice Low Residency MFA Program of Lasell University. He was a visiting professor at CUNY Queens College in the spring of 2017, and returned in the same role in spring 2020. Neufeld currently resides with his wife, the writer Sari Wilson, and their daughter, in Brooklyn, New York.

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).

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). the New Orleans Times Picayune, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Rolling Stone, Wired. com, BoingBoing, the Toronto Star, 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. In May 2008, it was announced that a four color hardcover edition of A. D. would be published by Pantheon Graphic Novels. The book included 25% more story and art, as well as extensive revisions to the material from the webcomic. Debuting on August 18, 2009, shortly before Hurricane Katrina's fourth anniversary, A. D. went on to become a New York Times bestseller.

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). 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. His comics were introduced in France through Angoulême's International Comic Festival in 2012 and 2015. and Greenberger in Duplex Planet Illustrated (published by Fantagraphics), R. Walker (in Titans of Finance), and Peter Ross (in a self published mini comic called Mortgage Your Soul). 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. Neufeld is an Associate Artist with the New York based theatre collective The Civilians, and has adapted portions of a number of their plays into comic book form. He has also collaborated with writer Eileen Myles, and Neufeld's mother, artist Martha Rosler. A special issue (subtitled "Of Two Minds") of Neufeld's comics series The Vagabonds was dedicated to his many collaborations. 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." 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. 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.

Neufeld's website features a complete bibliography.