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Main Junction: Harvey Pekar's Dead

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  1.  (8558.1)
    News story here.

    All condolences to his daughter, who was delightful when I met her and Harvey.

    Everyone told me Harvey was a crank. I thought he was funny as all hell. And a brilliant writer.
    •  
      CommentAuthormister hex
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010
     (8558.2)
    Well, THAT sucks.
    • CommentAuthorflecky
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010
     (8558.3)
    That's sad news..only really got into his work few years back. He was a true and special writer.The fact that his work was reaching other people because of Vertigo makes his passing an even greater loss
  4.  (8558.4)
    Damn. My g/f is going to take that hard, I liked him, but she was a HUGE fan. Didn't realize that I shared a birthday with Harvey.
  5.  (8558.5)
    sad news. kind of weird that comics won't have Harvey Pekar in it anymore. he was such an institution that you almost took him for granted.
    • CommentAuthormbakunin
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010
     (8558.6)
    Terribly sad news. I had the good fortune to meet both Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner at a Chicago Con years ago, and they were both wonderful, approachable, down-to-earth people. American Splendor will always be a towering achievement, and one of my all-time favorite comics series. I'll miss you, Mr. Pekar.
    •  
      CommentAuthorRooth
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010
     (8558.7)
    Aw crap.
    • CommentAuthorStefanJ
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010 edited
     (8558.8)
    What sad and sucky news to begin the week. I really loved his stuff.

    Just remembered: Harvey was a guest host on Anthony Bourdain's cooking / travel show a few years back. Well worth looking up.

    Edit: Good profile in The Onion's A.V Club:

    http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-harvey-pekar,42985/
  9.  (8558.9)
    that's such a shame.
    RIP harvey.

    would have loved to have had the chance to meet him and tell him how much i loved his comics.
  10.  (8558.10)
    That's terrible news. He was a really great writer.
    • CommentAuthoricelandbob
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010
     (8558.11)
    I came to his stuff very late (only in the last few years), but i loved a lot of his writing, especially "My Cancer Year".....

    Sorely missed...
  12.  (8558.12)
    "Just remembered: Harvey was a guest host on Anthony Bourdain's cooking / travel show a few years back. Well worth looking up."

    yeah, the Cleveland episode! I love Bourdain's show. it was funny to see Bourdain a little starstruck by Pekar.

  13.  (8558.13)
    Well, fuck...

    I first heard about American Splendor through The Comics Journal. At that point in my life, I wanted to supplement my comics diet of superheroes and genre action with something more. Reading the Pekar story "Waking Up To The Terror Of The Same Old Day" sold me that this was a man who understood what a crappy existence was like, yet he found a way to make it through the day. In a way, what made Pekar revolutionary was that he was able to transform even a mundane act as making a pitcher of lemonade into a personal triumph.

    But one can't also speak of Pekar without remembering the genial oddballs he met in his life. Mr. Boats and Toby come to mind immediately, folks who were not celebrities yet wound up being more intriguing than the latest cloned beautiful person.

    I know Pekar's comic work will live on. But is there someone out there willing to collect in one place Pekar's reviews of jazz records and obscure Russian literature?
    •  
      CommentAuthorm3t4lfi3nd
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010
     (8558.14)
    Really I should be more familiar with his work. I was aware of him before the movie just barely, and I enjoyed the movie although have yet to read his definig series or otherwise. Something I shall soon remedy.
  15.  (8558.15)
    @ m3t4lfi3nd
    really do. there are two great American Splendour anthologies out there (a yellow one and a red one) that are great steping on points.
  16.  (8558.16)
    Sonofabitch! My friend and I have seriously been considering taking a trip up to Cleveland to meet him (he said in one of his volumes if you look him up he'll hang out if he has the time). Pekar was the greatest comics autobiographer ever. I felt he really started hitting his stride in the last few years with "The Beats" and "Ego and Hubris", although my favorite story of his is still the American Splendor special featuring the Vietnam Vet.

    Later Horveee
    • CommentAuthorStefanJ
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010
     (8558.17)
    Nice:

    NPR's hourly news wrap up included a brief appreciation of Pekar.
    •  
      CommentAuthorCameron C.
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010
     (8558.18)
    I started making my own comics almost entirely because I picked up the movie branded collection of American Splendor trade shortly after getting a job at a Borders and reading it during my lunch break.

    I listened to interviews with him, comics related or not, whenever I could. He was so intimidatingly intelligent. I read Our Cancer Year and The Quitter from the library, I ordered older books online, I bought newer trades from my comic shop. His words, in his comics and out, inspired me so fucking much.

    Fuck, man. He was still working. He didnt let anything stop him.

    A while ago I bought an AS book that collected just the ones drawn by R Crumb and I scanned in the introduction he wrote for it. I love this intro.

    A Mercifully Short Preface by R. Crumb

    :(
    •  
      CommentAuthorSonny
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010
     (8558.19)
    Big blow to the world of comics.
    •  
      CommentAuthorD.J.
    • CommentTimeJul 12th 2010
     (8558.20)
    Going to read American Splendor now, in memorium. R.I.P, Harvey Pekar.

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