Harvey Pekar, R.I.P.

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• Monday 12th July 2010

Harvey Pekar was an extraordinary individual. A lifelong file clerk at a Veterans Administration hospital in Cleveland, he was a record collector, jazz critic, literary scholar, and one of the great comic book writers of all time, bringing a true literary sensibility to the form. His talent shone through his continuing series of American Splendor comics dealing with his day-to-day life and interests, his gripping collaboration with wife Joyce Brabner about his treatments for lymphatic cancer in Our Cancer Year, and the excellent screen adaptation of his overall existence in the movie American Splendor (starring Paul Giamatti).

There’ll be a lot written in the next few days about this perceptive artist. I’ll add only that I was standing in St. Marks Comics one day years ago when this cover by R. Crumb (a frequent Pekar collaborator) caught my eye, for obvious reasons.

The story inside about becoming an obsessive record collector – although Pekar was worse than I ever was – struck home mightily. And while it was illustrated by Crumb, it wasn’t weird, or underground funny; it just… was. How excellent.

I was never partial to Pekar’s appearances on Letterman, where he was treated as some sort of hipster  sideshow attraction, so I’m not going to post any of those clips. But I highly recommend the movie adaptation of American Splendor, as well as his various collections.