American Splendor: Our Movie Year

American Splendor: Our Movie Year 

By Harvey Pekar & various (Titan Books)
ISBN 1-84576-024-7

Harvey Pekar has been a continual source of great comics writing for adults since 1972 when fellow Jazz and underground comix enthusiast Robert Crumb offered to draw some scripts he’d been shown. From then Pekar’s work, mostly autobiographical, and mostly in his own American Splendor publication would appear at irregular intervals, illustrated by a broad band of artists.

The highly personal musings of a man who collected books, records, facts, opinions and worries whilst living the life of an ordinary blue-collar Joe in Cleveland, Ohio, made for highly regarded if not commercially acceptable comic strips. Dry, acerbic, introspective, often funny, and above all absolutely human in scale, his work was always at the fringes of the comic consciousness, and consequently never particularly financially rewarding.

This collection of stories is culled from a variety of sources and recounts the long and bewildering journey of Pekar’s work from comic page to the movie screen, as a twenty year ambition was realised with the eventual release of an independent film based on his comic. The documentary American Splendor not only happily captured his work but some critical awards too, and this volume recounts the peculiar whirlwind that followed its success and the world-wide promotional tour that the creator and his family had to endure in its wake. Also included are a selection of the “Lost and Found” vignettes that highlight lives, careers and works of people and things that the intellectually omnivorous Pekar periodically produces.

As usual, a large number of artists were involved. Handling the pictures here were Crumb, Gary Dumm, Mark Zingarelli, Josh Neufeld, Gerry Shamray, Greg Budgett, Frank Stack, Ed Piskor, Joe Zabel and Dean Haspiel.

As with his powerful breakthrough volume My Cancer Year, this is often an uncomfortable book to read, but it’s great to see the little guy finally get his share of the limelight in a medium that so often concentrates on the outlandish and superhuman. That makes this a great choice for those who treasure humanity and like the chance to ponder upon it every so often.

© 2004 Harvey Pekar, LLC. All Rights Reserved.