Sad News

Harvey Pekar passed away today, and though I never met the man, like many readers of his fantastic comic American Splendor, I'm going to miss him. I discovered his comic in Forbidden Planet in New York City back in 1982. I was drawn initially by the R. Crumb covers, but quickly became immersed in the sublime minutia of Pekar's ongoing autobiographical tales. In fact, I only just finished his collection called Another Dollar, and recently purchased his history of the Beat movement (though I haven't read it yet). His collaboration with Heather Robison and Ed Piskor on Macedonia may be the best book I've ever read on recent events in the Balkans, and his summaries of jazz figures both prominent and obscure were always a treat when I stumbled across one in the Village Voice or elsewhere. Pekar's great accomplishment though, was in demonstrating how fascinating anyone and everyone's life is, whether we always notice or not. He's the true godfather of the current autobiographical trend in comics, and as such deserves a lot of credit for helping the medium finally grow up and out of its longtime superhero straitjacket. It's truly incredible to realize that this working class file clerk from Cleveland revolutionized an art form, but I can't think of any other way to summarize what he did. I don't think it's a stretch to imagine that his work will remain in print, and read, for a long time to come. I hope he realized how significant his comics were before he passed away (if you've read them, you know how prone he was to doubting his impact).