American Splendor and More American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar

As far as I can tell, this shouldn't have worked. American Splendor isn't ever about anything, or rather it's about everything, with Harvey Pekar just picking moments in his life that he finds vaguely interesting. Or not even that.

Many of Pekar's stories are almost anti-comic in the amount of narration that Pekar provides to go with the art. There's no word/image hybridity here; without the narration, the pictures would just be isolated fragments, and it would be nearly impossible to deduce the stories. In the story "American Splendor Assaults the Media," there's so much text that there's barely room for images in the panels-- and the images are just Harvey Pekar as he tells you about the events. With little-to-no-alteration, it could show more be a straight text piece.

But somehow, American Splendor is utterly comics. I'm not sure why the pictures are there sometimes, but if they weren't, you'd have something very different. The stories might be dominated by Pekar's voice (so much so that sometimes who the artist is seems irrelevant), but the art does a lot to give it that voice. The first story in the book, "The Harvey Pekar Name Story," is the clearest demonstration of that. This story is just four pages of headshots-- the incidents the story describes never appear on-panel-- meaning that the illustrations are used to convey Pekar's body language as he "tells" the story. Though the narrative communicated would be same if Pekar had simply typed up the story as straight prose, the comic form gives it a sense of timing and humor. I actually once did an experiment where I gave the story as prose to my class and then as a comic, and all of them reported enjoying it much more as a comic. I myself liked American Splendor a lot, and I think I would have found it unsatisfying in any medium other than comics, so clearly Pekar is doing something right.

(My favorite story, by the way, was the one about Harvey's relationship with the guy he would bum rides off of, but refused to do any favors for in return.) show less

Pekar's vignettes about life in Cleveland capture the explicit angst of a man who does not fit neatly into any categories of the artist or intellectual. His life is one of defiance - he is not an easy man to get along with, but despite the resulting loneliness and angst, he sticks to his idiosyncratic path. The most moving stories involve his reflection and his attempt to make meaning out of the mundanities of his existence.

I was blessed to discover Harvey Pekar on LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN back in the 1980’s. He shambled out on stage, plopped into the guest seat and would not sit still. Agitated and annoyed, his intense eyes would flare and his coarse tongue flame in response to Letterman’s show biz BS. I viewed Letterman differently after that. Pekar had a way during those interviews of cutting straight to life’s bone—refusing to play along with the game of shallow presentations that most of TV is. I loved Letterman back then and still like him today, but watching Pekar fight to remain himself amidst the high show biz gloss seemed to pull back the curtain and reveal that TV was not life but a puppet show instead. And Pekar would not have show more his strings pulled by anyone even at the risk of damaging his career.

This same battle can be seen on every page of AMERICAN SPLENDOR. It would be very easy to read a story or two of Pekar’s and come away unimpressed. Often sparsely worded and little action to speak of, most of the stories feel like overheard conversations or those thoughts that make us pause a moment before stepping back into the usual rhythms. These are moments that question who we are and what we really want or how much our day to day lives are costing us. There is humor in his work, not all irritated gloom. Though I can’t say I laughed, I did quite often smile recognizing the truth of the life sprawled out before me. Even when the stories are gloomy and seemingly lacking in hope, there is a tough minded perseverance by the author that rarely fails to inspire. During his career, Pekar’s work was illustrated by several different artists—most famously by R. Crumb. The switching up of artists from story to story adds to the power of the work, giving the sense of jumping around inside Pekar’s mind—denying any quality of linear thinking having a singular illustrator might imply. As I mentioned, one or two stories might not impress you but each story adds wattage to the bulb so that by the time you reach the end there is a bright light indeed. show less

Being a collection of the unique comics of Harvey Pekar. Offbeat even by underground standards, Pekar provided scripts and sketches to cartoonists who then produced the final version. The best known of the artists is the celebrated R. Crumb, but the other illustrators are for the most part just as effective. The content of the strips is often, especially in the older ones, simply rants about life's quotidian frustrations; although these are wonderfully cathartic, they frequently suffer from not having any graphic potential and the artist simply draws page after page of a talking head. It must also be said that a few contain a whiff of the pity party about them. More consistently delightful are simple vignettes of his job, his record show more collecting hobby, and working-class experience of the life of the streets of Cleveland, where these are invariably set. Best of all are those in which he integrates his musings on the meaning of life, which I particularly enjoyed in the person of guest ranter Ozzie Nelson. Altogether, innovative and thought-provoking even by the high standards of underground comics. show less

It takes a rare writer to make real life this interesting. There's no metaphor here, no archetypes, no symbols, nothing but one man honestly and perfectly bridging the gap between his experiences and your brain.

I am not an avid graphic novel reader by any stretch of the imagination, so I found out about HP when I saw the movie (and it's one of my all-time faves)...I've only read a few of the comics in my life, but I'm hungry for much more. So far, Crumb's introduction is pretty great...

****************

There should be 6 stars, like amps that go to 11. I can't think of any hero I've had in my life, but if I had to choose one, it would be Harvey Pekar. This is it, folks. I need to read more than just a compilation. I give this 6 stars.

This is really the kind of storytelling I like best, the sort of slice-of-life stuff. I guess it's the depiction of the little moments of beauty or epiphany in plain life... It helps me step back and appreciate the details in my own mundane world a bit more. Good stuff.