Remembering Harvey Pekar

One of my favorite comic book people, comic book writer and one-time publisher Harvey Pekar, died July 12th. Pekar’s best known work is American Splendor, a series of autobiographical comic books that Pekar began publishing in 1976. Dark Horse Comics published American Splendor beginning in 1993 with issue 17. DC Comics, under its Vertigo imprint, published the last 8 issues. There were 39 American Splendor comic book issues published over a 32 year period.

Considered an underground comic book, American Splendor was mostly autobiographical, and Pekar used the comic book to chronicle his everyday life, including his job as a file clerk at a Veteran’s Administration hospital and his relationships with coworkers and patients. Pekar wrote the stories, but could not draw, so, over the years, a number of comic book artists drew the stories. The most famous is legendary Underground Comics artist, Robert Crumb (or R. Crumb), a long time friend of Pekar’s. Among the other American Splendor artists were Gary Dumm, Gregory Budgett, David Collier, and Frank Stack (Our Cancer Year).

Some will remember Pekar for a number of appearances that he made on the old Late Night with David Letterman show in the late 1980s. American Splendor was also adapted into a 2003 Academy Award-nominated film of the same name. Actor Paul Giamatti portrayed Pekar, but Pekar also appeared in the film as himself.

I first discovered Pekar in the mid-1980s, only a couple of years after discovering that there was such a thing as a comic book shop. I still have a weathered copy of the first American Splendor book collection, American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar, which Doubleday published in 1986 under its “Dolphin” imprint.

Harvey Lawrence Pekar was born on October 8, 1939 to Polish immigrant parents. Apparently, Pekar lived his entire life in Cleveland, OH, except for his time in the U.S. Navy. Pekar was 70 years old. Rest in peace.

Pekar's death is noted in this blog entry at Cleveland.com that also talks about his life and work.

There are Wikipedia entries for Pekar and American Splendor.

Smith Magazine has The Pekar Project.

My review of American Splendor is here.

82nd Academy Awards Make Some Black Film History (A Bits & Bites Special)

For Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, Gabourey Sidibe becomes only the eighth Black actress to receive a nod for lead actress.

For Invictus, Morgan Freeman receives his fifth acting Oscar nomination. This gives Freeman a tie with Denzel Washington as the black actors with the most acting Oscar nominations. Both Freeman and Washington also have three Oscar nominations for “Best Actor in a Leading Role,” which is the most by any black actor in the “leading role” categories.

With the “best picture” nomination Broderick Johnson receives as a co-producer of The Blind Side, he becomes only the second African-American to receive a “Best Picture” nod. Quincy Jones was the first, for The Color Purple.

The film Precious racked up six nominations and made some history. Director Lee Daniels was nominated for “best director,” becoming only the second African-American nominated in this category and the first since John Singleton for Boyz n the Hood in 1991.

Precious also earned a nomination for best adapted screenplay, which was given to Geoffry Fletcher. He is only the third African American to receive a nod in this category, and the first since Charles Fuller received a “best adapted screenplay” nomination 25 years for adapting his play for the film, A Soldier’s Story.

Precious was also nominated for best picture with nine other films. This is the first time that a film with both a predominately Black cast and a Black director was nominated for “Best Picture.” Lee Daniels becomes only the third African-American to receive a “best picture nomination” (as a co-producer of Precious). Daniels is also the first African-American to receive a “best director” nomination and a “best picture” nomination for the same film.

As a side note, actor Don Cheadle, a producer of Crash, was excluded from receiving a “best picture” nomination for that film and later an Oscar when Crash won “best picture,” because the Academy decided not to recognize his achievement due to a ruling against Cheadle by the Producers Guild of America.

For The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow is also only the fourth woman nominated for “best director” and the first since Sofia Coppola in 2003.

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will air tonight, March 7th, hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

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