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American Splendor is, of course, the comic book about the life of Harvey Pekar in all its humdrum glory, usually told in the form of short observational stories. Our Movie Year collects a number of stories that depicted what happened in Pekar's life when the 2003 film came out, or were written around that time, or came about as a consequence of the film. As is frustratingly normal for an American Splendor collection, there's no contextual material: when and where did these stories originally appear? you will just have to infer it.

It's a bit of a mixed bag, more than most American Splendor collections. Part of the issue is that much of the material is redundant: I think there are three different accounts of how the movie got made. Each originally appeared in a different venue, I believe, but put them all in the same book and you get the same story three different times. Some other stories re-tell the story of American Splendor itself. Again, useful if Pekar's debuting in some new venue, but longtime readers don't need to be reretetold the story of how he met R. Crumb.

Pekar is at his best when he's hyper-detailed, when he's (for example) spending thirteen pages telling the story of how he waited for a jump outside the movie theater when his car died, or thirteen pages about him fretting about missing a flight back home to Cleveland so he can check his mail. These stories and similar ones were my favorites.

On the other hand, some of these stories cover a lot of ground; eighteen pages for the entire making of the movie is not a lot, and I found myself wishing he'd decompressed some of those scenes more, giving us more of the curious but everyday neuroses of being Harvey Pekar, even when meeting a film producer or Paul Giamatti or whatever, but alas, there's little of that here. One does notice his continual interest in everything financial; both stories about his trip to Sundance make sure to note that the condo was well-stocked with food, while throughout he's worried what will happen now that he's retired once his money from new writing opportunities spurred by the release of the film dry up. If you want to know how the film affected Pekar personally, that's clearly it: it's a way for him to hopefully get more professional opportunities when he really needs them, little more.

There was a run of "stories" where it's Pekar cramming facts about some musical act into 1-2 pages; sorry, but even you can't make me care about jazz, Harvey. I was a bit surprised to learn that even before Ego & Hubris, he was telling stories of Michael Malice. As is often the case by now, his artistic collaborators are well chosen. There's a fun reunion with R. Crumb, and I particularly like Gerry Shamray's work in this one, though we also have a lot of solid contributions from Gary Dumm.

Pekar's persona is very endearing. He manages to come off as authentic when he worries about his pension and the future despite the massive success of his movie, no small feat in itself. And you sort of reflexively roll your eyes when he starts sincerely thanking all the movie people he worked with, because the gut reaction is "Hollywood circlejerk," but then you think about it for another second and hey - he's sincerely thanking all the people he worked with. How nice is that? And all the everyday stories from regular lives - it's such an admirable project, although when he gets into less everyday stuff, like lives of the great jazzers, it gets into kind of sub-All Music fact litany with pictures. I think I'd like Harvey Pekar, and I'm as happy that he's been able to live the way he does as I am about Liam's family. ( )