It's all over now, the voice of Cleveland, Harvey Pekar has passed on at age 70. His sarcastically named autobiographical comic book series, American Splendor, which he wrote and had a variety of artists starting with the world-famous R. Crumb illustrate, entered the mass culture with the hilarious, inventive, reality-fiction mixing movie version released in 2008, starring Paul Giamatti as Pekar and Hope Davis as his wife, Joyce. Per Giamatti today:
"Harvey was one of the most compassionate and empathetic human beings I've ever met," Giamatti said in a statement. "He had a huge brain and an even bigger soul. And he was hilarious. He was a great artist, a true American poet, and there is no one to replace him."
The obits above are well-worth reading, as is his perhaps most notable work, Our Cancer Year, about his struggle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was also famous for his guest spots on David Letterman, until he went on to tirade against NBC owner General Electric's labor practices and got himself banned from the show, also well-documented in the movie.
For all his success, here's where Pekar netted out:
Success did not seem to ease Mr. Pekar’s existential predicament. “Of course I don’t think I have it made by any means,” his alter ego said in a cartoon in Entertainment Weekly in 2003. “I’m too insecure, obsessive and paranoid for that.”
Now that this great American original has gone to the great comic book store in the sky (the afterlife being something he surely never believed in), he's now American legend. I predict a long afterlife for the fine works he left behind, even as he has changed the perception of comic books forever and inspired others who have already followed in his path.
Nice job, Harvey.
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