Harvey Pekar

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Harvey Pekar on the cover of American Splendor: Portrait of the Artist in his Declining Years

Harvey Pekar (born October 8, 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American underground comic book writer. His friendship with Robert Crumb led to the creation of the autobiographical comic book series American Splendor, later adapted as a movie. Crumb and Pekar became friends through their mutual love of jazz records, and Crumb became the first artist to illustrate American Splendor. The comic documents daily life in the aging neighborhoods of Pekar's native Cleveland, where Pekar worked (throughout his life, even after gaining fame) as a file clerk in a large Veterans Administration hospital.

In the late 1980s, Pekar's comic book success led to eight guest appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. However, his confrontational style and overt on-air criticism of General Electric (which owned NBC) led to the show banning him as a guest until the early 1990s.

A film adaptation of American Splendor was released in 2003, to critical acclaim. It featured Paul Giamatti as Pekar, as well as appearances by Pekar himself. Pekar wrote about the effects of the film in American Splendor: Our Movie Year. Also that year Pekar released his first non-autobiographical work, American Splendor: Unsung Hero documenting the Vietnam War experience of Robert McNeill, one of Pekar's African American coworkers at Cleveland's VA hospital.

On October 5, 2005, the DC Comics imprint Vertigo released Pekar's autobiographical hardcover The Quitter, with artwork by Dean Haspiel. The book detailed Pekar's early years, and was created in part to reward Haspiel for his role in introducing Pekar to the producers who made the American Splendor movie.

In 2006 Pekar will release a five-issue American Splendor miniseries through Vertigo [1]. He also released another non-autobiographical book for Ballantine/Random House, Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story, about the life of Michael Malice, who was the founding editor of OverheardinNY.com [2]. Pekar was also given the honor of being the first guest editor for the The Best American Comics 2006 collection published by Houghton Mifflin, the first comics publication in the "Best American series" series. Also due out from Ballantine in May 2007 is Macedonia, Pekar's collaboration with student Heather Roberson and artist Ed Piskor [3] [4].

In addition to writing American Splendor, Pekar is a prolific jazz and book critic. He has also won awards for essays broadcast on public radio.

He was married from 1960 to 1972 to Karen Delaney, a writer and educator, who currently lives in Chicago. She was the (uncredited) photographer who took many of the pictures of Pekar that appeared in "The Quitter." Pekar's third wife is writer Joyce Brabner, with whom he collaborated on Our Cancer Year, a graphic novel autobiography of his struggle with lymphoma which won a Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Original Work. He won the American Book Award for his 1991 collection The New American Splendor Anthology. He lives in Cleveland Heights, Ohio with Brabner and their foster daughter, Danielle.

[edit] Books

More American Splendor (Doubleday, 1987) ISBN 0-385-24073-2
The New American Splendor Anthology (Four Walls Eight Windows, 1991) ISBN 0-941423-64-6
Our Cancer Year, with Joyce Brabner and Frank Stack (Four Walls Eight Windows, 1994) ISBN 1-56858-011-8
American Splendor Presents: Bob & Harv's Comics, with R. Crumb (Four Walls Eight Windows, 1996) ISBN 1-56858-101-7
American Splendor: Unsung Hero, with David Collier (Dark Horse, 2003) ISBN 1-59307-040-3
American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar (Ballantine Books, 2003) ISBN 0-345-46830-9
American Splendor: Our Movie Year (Ballantine Books, 2004) ISBN 0-345-47937-8
Best of American Splendor (Ballantine Books, 2005) ISBN 0-345-47938-6
The Quitter, with Dean Haspiel (DC/Vertigo, 2005) ISBN 1-4012-0399-X
Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story, with Gary Dumm (Ballantine Books, 2006) ISBN 0-345-47939-4
Macedonia, with Heather Roberson and Ed Piskor (Ballantine Books, 2006)