Most Popular Books by Harvey Pekar

Collected interviews with the creator of American Splendor, the longest-running autobiographical comic book series produced in America

Artists Gerry Shamray, Gary Dumm, Gregory Budgett, and Kevin Brown illustrate this collection of pieces from the "American Splendor" series, author Harvey Pekar''s celebration of Cleveland working-class life.

From off the streets of Cleveland, the amazing and occasionally regrettable true-life adventures of Harvey Pekar, cineaste. Harvey Pekar is from Cleveland. This much you know. But with the release of American Splendor, the indie hit film based on his comic of the same name, the world discovered Harvey in earnest. Once Harvey was content merely to flirt with fame. But when fame wanted a commitment, he found himself a household name. Sort of. And, to tell you the truth, it’s starting to bug the hell out of him. An original, incisive graphic novel featuring the talents of R. Crumb, Gary Dumm, Mark Zingarelli, and other artists, Our Movie Year chronicles a whirlwind twelve months in the life of Harvey Pekar. It recounts his rise from the filing room at the Cleveland VA hospital to the red carpet at Cannes, Sundance, the Oscars, and beyond–where Harvey won awards, accolades, and the promise of a bigger paycheck. A lot of funny things can happen in a year, and many of them happened to Harvey. And now everyone gets to read about them in Our Movie Year.

With an appreciation by Anthony Bourdain HAVE ATTITUDE, WILL TRAVEL Harvey Pekar changed the face of comics when his American Splendor series replaced traditional slam-bang superhero action with slice-of-life tales of his own very ordinary existence in Cleveland, Ohio, as a file clerk, jazz-record collector, and philosophical curmudgeon. Much as Seinfeld famously transcended sitcom conventions by being “a show about nothing,” Pekar’s deadpan chronicles of regular life—peppered with wry and caustic reflections—have transformed comics from escapist fantasy into social commentary with voice balloons. Huntington, West Virginia “On the Fly” is prime Pekar, recounting the irascible everyman’s on-the-road encounters with a cross section of characters—a career criminal turned limo-driving entrepreneur, a toy merchant obsessed with restoring a vintage diner, comic-book archivists, indie filmmakers, and children of the sixties—all of whom have stories to tell. By turns funny, poignant, and insightful, these portraits à la Pekar showcase a one-of-a-kind master at work, channeling the stuff of average life into genuine American art.

Offers a brief history of the city before the author''s birth in 1939, then focuses on the author''s life in the city and the ups and downs it faced during those seventy years.

“Michael Malice is one of the most puzzling twenty-first century Americans I have ever met.” –Harvey Pekar Who’s Michael Malice, and how did he become the subject of a graphic novel by Harvey Pekar, the curmudgeon from Cleveland? First of all, Michael Malice is a real person. He’s 5’6” and weighs 130 pounds. Although on the cusp of thirty, he could easily pass for a scrawny teenager. One day Michael, a guy with a patchwork employment record and dreams as big as his ego, meets Harvey and begins to relay all these wild stories about his life. Simple as that. Harvey thinks the guy is bright but a bit of a riddle–though not the kind wrapped in an enigma. It’s strange. He seems like the type of person you meet every day, rather ordinary, until you really get to know him. Then you realize he’s exceptional, unusual, and contradictory. Pleasant one minute, really nasty the next. But isn’t cruelty part of human nature? We digress. . . . Harvey writes up and illustrates one of Michael Malice’s tales, “Fish Story,” which is part of American Splendor: Our Movie Year. It makes a splash and spawns this book, Harvey’s first hardcover, a graphic novel event about one guy’s life. Ego & Hubris relates how, a year and a half after his birth in the Ukraine, Michael Malice moved with his parents to Brooklyn. He’s an intransigent kid, a hard-ass–both a demon to and demonized by the people who cross his path. His life is a constant struggle for validation in a world where the machine keeps trying to break him down. But Michael has a way with people . . . or rather, has a way of getting even with people. Hey, if you can’t live up to your parents’ expectations, at least you can live up to your name. Michael had never come close to fulfilling his huge dreams–until now. And just as Harvey’s been the everyman for a certain generation of graphic-novel readers, Michael Malice will be the everyman for a new generation. From the Hardcover edition.

Gathered here are the collected works of the titans of adults comics — legendary underground cartoonist R. Crumb and the "high priest of comic-book naturalism" (Newsweek) Harvey Pekar. The comic collision of these underground luminaries is funny, obsessive, ever-so-slightly neurotic, but always biting and honest.

It was they year of Desert Storm that Harvey Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner, discovered Harvey had cancer. Pekar, a man who has made a profession of chronicling the Kafkaesque absurdities of an ordinary life (if any life is ordinary) suddenly found himself incapacitated. But he had a better-than-average chance to beat cancer and he took it — kicking, screaming, and complaining all the way. Pekar and Brabner draw on this and other trials to paint a portrait of a man beset with fears real and imagined — who survives.

Details the history of the Beat movement, which began in the 1940s, and describes the lives of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs; along with other writers, artists, and events in a graphic novel format.

Following the success of his critically praised graphic novel THE QUITTER, Harvey Pekar returns to Vertigo with this all-new, 4-issue AMERICAN SPLENDOR miniseries, celebrating 30 years of the series that first showed how, as Harvey would say, ''ordinary life can be pretty complex stuff.''

In Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me, one of the final graphic memoirs from the man who defined the genre, Harvey Pekar explores what it means to be Jewish and what Israel means to the Jews. Pekar’s mother was a Zionist by way of politics, his father by way of faith, and he inevitably grew up a staunch supporter of Israel. But as he became attuned to the wider world, Pekar began to question his parents’ most fundamental beliefs. This book is the full account of that questioning. Over the course of a single day in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, Pekar and the illustrator JT Waldman wrestle with the mythologies passed down to them, weaving a personal and historical odyssey of uncommon wit and power. With an epilogue written by Joyce Brabner, Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me is an es- sential book for fans of Harvey Pekar and anyone interested in the past and future of the Jewish state.

Bob Dylan, John Steinbeck, Robert Altman: Americans who defined through their art the struggles of the common man... yet one name is missing from this list: Cleveland''s most famous writer, actor and complainer, the acutely observational Harvey Pekar! Witness Harvey''s daily trials and tribulations in this all-new graphic novel, as he struggles with the complexities of modern life including refilling a prescription at the pharmacy, the joy of taxes, avoiding house clutter and those dreaded automobile repairs! Each story captures the struggle of modern man, often with hilarious outcomes! Illustrated by comics'' best-known talent including Dean Haspiel, Darwyn Cooke, Warren Pleece and Darick Robertson, American Splendor is a joyous slice of American life.

Transforms sixteen short oral histories originally published in "Working" into graphic novel vignettes, including stories from a stock broker, a labor organizer, a proofreader, a gravedigger, a mail carrier, and a jazz musician.

The creator of the comic-book series American Splendor presents a collection of his finest works, including his zany commentaries on the complexities of modern life, all illustrated by some of the leading artists in the field. Adult.

“Pekar has proven that comics can address the ambiguities of daily living, that like the finest fiction, they can hold a mirror up to life.” –The New York Times For years Heather Roberson, a passionate peace activist, has argued that war can always be avoided. But she has repeatedly faced counterarguments that fighting is an inescapable consequence of world conflicts. Indeed, Heather finds proving her point to be a little tricky without examples to bolster her case. So she does something a little crazy: She sets out for far-off Macedonia, a landlocked country north of Greece and west of Bulgaria, to explore a region that has edged–repeatedly–close to the brink of violence, only to refrain. In the process–and as vividly portrayed by the talented duo of Harvey Pekar and Ed Piskor–Heather is tangled in red tape, ripped off by cabdrivers and hotel clerks, hit on by creepy guys, secretly photographed, and mistaken for a spy. She also creates unlikely friendships, learns that getting lost means seeing something new, and makes some startling discoveries. War is hell and peace is difficult–but conflict is always necessary. “Harvey Pekar wrestles the kind of things most comic book heroes wouldn’t touch with a laser blaster.” –Cleveland Plain Dealer “A visit with Harvey Pekar . . . will cause you to reexamine your own life . . . just as the greatest literature will.” –The Austin Chronicle “Pekar lets all of life flood into his panels: the humdrum and the heroic, the gritty and the grand.” –The New York Times Book Review

Harvey Pekar is a true American original, known by many as the blue-collar Mark Twain. For over 25 years he''s been writing comic books about his life, chronicling the ordinary and everyday in stories both funny and moving.

"Suggested for mature readers"--P. [4] of cover.

In this issue, Harvey chronicles his battles with stubborn sofas, short-sighted magazine writers, treacherous front doorsteps and many more obstacles for him to overcome in his pursuit of a fulfilling and meaningful existence. Featuring art by Chris Weston, Dean Haspiel and many more.

A history of the group Students for a Democratic Society told in graphic form.

Collects original comic strips from American authors and illustrators published in 2007 in graphic novels, newspapers, magazines, and on the Internet.

Written by Harvey Pekar Cover by Dean Haspiel Art by Haspiel, Eddie Campbell, Ty Templeton and others Harvey Pekar returns to celebrate 30 years of autobiographical comics with his newest volume collecting the 4-issue acclaimed miniseries. Advance-solicited; on sale April 7 - 136 pg, B&W, $14.99 US - MATURE READERS

Harvey Pekar once again brings us his unique blend of humor and pathos in this new collection of his autobiographical comic books. Black-and-white illustrations throughout.

Allongé sur le divan qu''il s''est fait livrer à domicile, H. Pekar raconte ses problèmes dans des saynètes autobiographiques. Des journées qui défilent les unes après les autres à Cleveland, cette ville industrielle qui ne s''est jamais vraiment remise de la grande dépression.