Harvey Lawrence Pekar (/ˈpiːkɑːr/; October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010) was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a well-received film adaptation of the same name.
Frequently described as the "poet laureate of Cleveland," Pekar "helped change the appreciation for, and perceptions of, the graphic novel, the drawn memoir, the autobiographical comic narrative." Pekar described his work as "autobiography written as it's happening. The theme is about staying alive, getting a job, finding a mate, having a place to live, finding a creative outlet. Life is a war of attrition. You have to stay active on all fronts. It's one thing after another. I've tried to control a chaotic universe. And it's a losing battle. But I can't let go. I've tried, but I can't."
Life
Harvey Pekar and his younger brother Allen were born in Cleveland, Ohio to Saul and Dora Pekar, immigrants from Białystok, Poland. Saul Pekar was a Talmudic scholar who owned a grocery store on Kinsman Avenue, with the family living above the store. While Pekar said he wasn't close to his parents due to their dissimilar backgrounds and because they worked all the time, he still "marveled at how devoted they were to each other. They had so much love and admiration for one another."
"Don't call me a curmudgeon. Everyone who writes about me calls me a curmudgeon. I don't know why."
"I guess there's an element of self-loathing there,"
"I still feel kind of beleaguered."
"We're as interesting and funny as anyone else."
"The film's success so far involves winning a couple of prizes at Cannes and Sundance, and getting some very nice reviews in newspapers and magazines. That hasn't had a big impact on my life yet."
"I really don't have a lot in common with the people who attend the Comic Con. It's like assuming that all people who write prose are the same."
"It seemed to me you could do anything in comics. So I started doing my thing, which is mainly influenced by novelists, stand-up comedians, that sort of thing."
"I'd been familiar with comics, and I'd collected 'em when I was a kid, but after I got into junior high school, there wasn't much I was interested in."
"You can find heroism everyday, like guys working terrible jobs because they've got to support their families. Or as far as humor, the things I see on the job, on the street, are far funnier than anything you'll ever see on TV."
"I met Robert Crumb in 1962; he lived in Cleveland for a while. I took a look at his stuff. Crumb was doing stuff beyond what other writers and artists were doing. It was a step beyond Mad."
"I write scripts in storyboard fashion using stick figures, and thought balloons and word balloons and captions. Then I'll write descriptions of what scenes should look like and turn it over to the artist."
"I wake up every morning in a cold sweat, regardless of how well things went the day before. And put that I said that in a somewhat but not completely tongue-in-cheek way."
"I'm always shook up and nervous and I've got the hospital record to prove it."
"I decided I was going to tell these stories. I went around and met Crumb. He was the cartoonist. I started realizing comics weren't just kid stuff."
"Things improved a little bit in the '80s; there was kind of a revival of alternative comics, but then they went downhill in the '90s."
"Letterman... he got his problems. We don't get along too well."
"I came up with American Splendor. Some people think it's American Squalor."
"It makes you feel good to know that there's other people afflicted like you."
"It didn't take long to establish myself, as far as people thinking my work was good. They liked it from the start."
"I thought I had a great opportunity when I started doing my comic book in 1972. I thought there was so much territory to work in."
In the era before comic-book movies arrived multiple times per year, American Splendor bucked the trend by treating its subject and creator, HarveyPekar, as a man who was extraordinary because he was so ordinary.
'Most popular movie of all time' ... Built in 1902, this boutique brand is known for its quirky touches — the lobby has a collection of American Splendor comics, the sardonic autobiographical tomes created by Cleveland native HarveyPekar.
American Splendor is a comedy documentary with elements of animation and live action that takes a deep dive into the life of famous comic book writer HarveyPekar and how he came into this profession.
HarveyPekar is the role Paul Giamatti was born to play ... Like Pekar’s comics themselves, the performance has one foot planted in a stylized, exaggerated cantankerousness — Harvey is truly a comic-strip ...
In 2003, the comic book to big screen pipeline was at its most ambitious when one film took a chance on the subversive and underground stories of HarveyPekar, the subject ...
Despite not having great artistic ability, Havey Pekar (Paul...American Splendor is a biopic like no other, as it is one part feature film and one part documentary featuring the real Harvey Pekar.
Lights, camera, action...ACTION ... Paul Giamatti stars as HarveyPekar in this biopic about the Cleveland comic artist. Pekar works a dead-end file-clerk job but brings the complexities of everyday life to the pages of comic books through his cynical lens.
• The Quitter, by HarveyPekar; illustrated by Dean Haspiel... If you haven’t dived into the late Pekar’s work in the past (and if you like getting an unvarnished life perspective as told in graphic novels), any of his books is sure to be a treat ... • Gig.
...Oscar and Bafta — brings to mind his work playing failed author and wine expert Miles in (2004), real-life comic-book creator HarveyPekar in (2003) and a US founding father in the 2008 miniseries .
This biographical comedy-drama is about HarveyPekar, the author of the “American Splendor” comic book series for which the film is named. Paul Giamatti plays Pekar, who chronicled his life as a hospital file clerk in Ohio in his comic books.
Lincoln Journal Star
24 Nov 2023
Lincoln Journal Star
24 Nov 2023