American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar is a good starting point for anyone who’s interested in what Harvey Pekar did. Many people have seen that Harvey Pekar died this weekend, but might not be familiar with his work. A really good way to find out who Harvey Pekar really was is to watch the American Splendor Movie. This book was released around the same time as this movie to capture the momentum, which is why it has the movie cover. But who is Harvey Pekar.

Harvey Pekar was born in the late 30s in Cleveland to a poor working class family. Pekar was intelligent, but never really felt part of any group. His worrying personality and outsider status led him to a relatively simple working class life. He eventually found himself working as a file clerk in a VA Hospital in Cleveland because that was all he could do. It wasn’t that he wasn’t smart enough or talented enough to do many other things, it’s simply that with his personality he couldn’t do anything else. (NOTE: To see more of his younger life, read Pekar’s graphic novel The Quitter).

Pekar was also into the local jazz scene, as he was a huge fan. This brought him into the same group as Robert Crumb, who was just getting into the underground comix scene. Pekar found himself enjoying the underground comix and thought about getting into it more. But he had no artistic talent and no stories to tell and no place to tell them. He eventually decided to write stories about himself and asked Crumb to look at them. Crumb offered to draw some of the stories and some of his other artist friend loved the stories and offered to draw some as well. Pekar decided to self-publish and American Splendor was born.

The book got him into his third marriage to Joyce Brabner, who contacted him looking for a back issue and stayed with him for the rest of his life. The book got him onto the Late Show with David Letterman. The book got made into a play. The book got made into a movie. The book brought his name up to people and brought him opportunities to write more jazz reviews. Pekar was never a sell out, but not due to lack of trying. He joked (semi-seriously) that he never sold out because he didn’t know how.

American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar is a great introduction to Pekar’s work as a, sort of greatest hits. It covers many of his best stories (which range from 1 to 15 pages). Many of the beloved characters (such as Joyce, Toby, etc.) are shown. It’s a nice way to see what Harvey Pekar was about and can help answer the question of who was Harvey Pekar. Highly Recommended.