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By Harvey Pekar & various (Vertigo)
ISBN 1-84576-452-8
Hopefully the brilliant Harvey Pekar will finally get some much deserved acclaim from the comics crowd now that his writings have appeared in ‘proper, mainstream’ comics. Or at least under the Vertigo imprint, which is nearly as good.
Kidding aside however, this collection of the four issues of new material published by DC Comics’ mature sub-division, and of course the excellent The Quitter graphic novel, should surely, at last, win him some fans amongst those dedicated consumers that have shunned him for decades.
Pekar has written another series of vignettes, asides, tales, observations and pictorial cathartics that are compelling and mundane, enthralling and ordinary, and made that quantum leap we all aspire to seem easy. He’s made comic strips something that civilians would want to read.
His collaborators this time around are Ho Che Anderson, Zachary Baldus, Hilary Barta, Greg Budgett & Gary Dumm, Eddie Campbell, Richard Corben, Hunt Emerson, Bob Fingerman, Rick Geary, Dean Haspiel, Gilbert Hernandez, Leonardo Manco, Josh Neufeld, Chris Samnee, Ty Templeton, Steve Vance, Chris Weston and Chandler Wood.
This book with all the shades, tones, textures and variety possible with black and white comics, is an absolute delight, but if you’re a colour junkie there is a section at the back with a solitary strip plus the captivating covers to ease you into the powerful world of monochrome. Buy this book!
© 2006, 2007 Harvey Pekar & DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.