Harvey Pekar

Harvey Pekar

Harvey Pekar (born October 8, 1939 in Cleveland , Ohio , † July 12, 2010 in Cleveland Heights , Ohio) was an American comic book author. In the 1960s, Harvey Pekar developed the idea of ​​writing comics about his own everyday life and thus invented a new comic genre.

Live and act

Pekar worked as an archivist in a hospital for 35 years. In the late 1950s he wrote as a jazz critic for magazines such as Down Beat , Jazz Review and various British jazz magazines. In the 1960s he met the artist Robert Crumb and developed the idea of writing comics about his own, less glamorous everyday life . He called him American Splendor . He did not draw himself, but was able to win over his friend Crumb and other illustrators. The series never became overly successful, but it did gain a stable circle of fans. In the late 1980s, he made eight appearances on David Letterman's show. The life and work of Pekar was filmed by Shari S. Berman and Robert Pulcini in 2003 under the title American Splendor .

Harvey Pekar was married to the author Joyce Brabner. With her he wrote Our Cancer Year , an autobiographical book about his fight against cancer . In addition, Pekar was also active as a jazz critic.

Prizes and awards

• 1987: American Book Award for the first American Splendor Anthology
• 1995: Harvey Award Best Graphic Album of Original Work (for Our Cancer Year )

Works

• American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar (Doubleday, 1986)
• 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: 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 , mt 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) ISBN 0-3454-9899-2
• American Splendor: Another Day (DC / Vertigo, 2007) ISBN 978-1-4012-1235-3
• Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History (Hill and Wang, 2008) ISBN 978-0809095391
• American Splendor: Another Dollar (2009) ISBN 978-1-4012-2173-7
• The Beats (2009) ISBN 978-0-2856-3858-7
• Studs Terkel 's Working: A Graphic Adaptation (2009) ISBN 978-1-59558-321-5

literature

• Interview in zitty (Berliner Stadtmagazin), No. 23/2004, p. 44

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Famed Cleveland Comic Book Writer Harvey Pekar Dies ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Andreas C. Knigge: Comics - Vom Massenblatt ins multimediale Abenteuer , p. 165. Rowohlt, 1996.
3. ^ The Harvey Awards . The Harvey Awards. Archived from the original on July 16, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 12, 2010. 

Web links

• Homepage of Harvey Pekar (English)
• Who is Harry Pekar?
• Obituary in The New York Times
• Detailed obituary
• Obituary for Harvey Pekar as a jazz critic for All About Jazz