Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Lawrence Pekarwas an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a well-received film adaptation of the same name...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComic Book Artist
Date of Birth8 October 1939
CountryUnited States of America
believe digging hard liking people rather settle stuff
I don't want to play myself up as a hero, because it would make me unbelievable. I'd rather settle for people thinking that I'm a bum, but digging my stories, than liking me and not being able to believe in my stories. That's one reason I've been hard on myself, because I want my stuff to be believable.
art bad cleveland left museum people stuff symphony wealthy
Cleveland has a very bad reputation, but there's a lot of stuff that's left over from when there were very wealthy people - the Art Museum and a world class symphony that's still world class.
freelance life lucky rest stuff unless whether work writer
I have to be a freelance writer for the rest of my life, unless I get some kind of real lucky break. But other than that, I'll always have to work. I always worry about whether my stuff is going to get over. Will they like this, will they like that?
although copy memorize respect seem stuff suppose work
The way I write is, I listen to things in my head, and then I copy them down. I memorize conversations and things like that; I seem to be able to do that pretty well. I suppose in that respect there's some improvisation, although I work over the stuff after I've got it down on paper.
kids stories stuff
I decided I was going to tell these stories. I went around and met Crumb. He was the cartoonist. I started realizing comics weren't just kid stuff.
writing stuff splendor
Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.
artist comic details happens life mundane stuff virtually
I concentrate, more than I think virtually any comic book artist has in the past, on the so-called mundane details of every day life - quotidian life. What happens to a person during a working day, marital relations, and stuff like that.
major stuff
I've just been writing stuff down as it comes to me. I haven't thought, 'Let me write some major opus here.'
change
There hasn't been enough change in comics to suit me. I don't know why exactly.
record shook
I'm always shook up and nervous and I've got the hospital record to prove it.
Letterman... he got his problems. We don't get along too well.
anyone funny
We're as interesting and funny as anyone else.
amount art comics dawned forms history limited tremendous
It dawned on me that comics were not an intrinsically limited medium. There was a tremendous amount of things you could do in comics that you couldn't do in other art forms - but no one was doing it. I figured if I'd make a try at it, I'd at least be a footnote in history.
establish far liked people work
It didn't take long to establish myself, as far as people thinking my work was good. They liked it from the start.