Harvey Pekar is no stranger to having his life open to the public. Since 1976, his worldview has been captured and published in his comic book American Splendor. The first comic book of its kind, American Splendor is nothing more, and nothing less, than the everyday that is Harvey Pekar. A now-retired file clerk for the Cleveland V.A. Hospital, Pekar’s writing, with the help of famous artists like R. Crumb, illustrated life in all its glory…and, most importantly, all of its grit.
The original nature, stark hilarity and absolute candidness of Pekar’s writing for American Splendor, as well as Our Cancer Year, a joint venture with his wife Joyce, has won him critical success including the American Book Award in 1987. Now that unique, and at the same time universal perspective of the 9-5 working man negotiating his way through the ordinary and absurdity of life is on silver screens across the country.
With their brilliant cinematic delivery of American Splendor, the writing/directing team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini are introducing audiences everywhere to Harvey Pekar. After showing at Cannes and winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, American Splendor is now in nationwide release and the reaction from both critics and audiences has been positively splendid. Berman and Pulcini’s use of animation, documentary and narrative techniques are so engaging that the viewer is quickly engrossed in Pekar’s story. The performances by Paul Giamatti (Pekar) and Hope Davis (as his wife Joyce) as well as the interview appearances by Pekar and Joyce themselves, create a seamless world of comic books and real life.
Now awaiting the end of the movie’s press tour, Pekar continues to search for freelance writing gigs (he’s well known for his music and book reviews) and worries about providing for his family. It’s clear after speaking to him that the bright lights of Hollywood haven’t taken away any amount of honesty from his point of view.
Now that your life has become a movie, have you been thinking about going back and creating this experience as a comic book?
Yeah I have. Our Movie Year you mean? Something like that? Yeah, I’ve thought about that.
What would that comic look like?
Well, the reason I haven’t started it is, I don’t exactly know. The story hasn’t played out enough for me to know exactly how I would want to structure this as something. So I’m sort of waiting to see how that turns out.
Has anything about this whole experience struck you?
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Well, the one thing I have to say is that I was kind of amazed by my good luck in getting to work with the people that I worked with. They are very competent and very nice people. And I’m amazed that the movie’s gone as far as it’s gone. I’ve done a lot of good writing over the years, but I’ve never gotten much recognition for it.
Do you think people are finally recognizing it because of your writing, or because of your personality?
Well, I write about myself as a personality. I mean, they’re getting it…
What’s it been like to watch people portray your life?
It’s fine. It’s alright with me. I’ve had people portray my life for years in comic books and in the theatre. I’ve been in a couple movies myself.
Ed. note: Pekar has made two cameo appearances in films: Ron Mann’s “Comic Book Confidential” in 1988 and Alan Zweig’s Vinyl in 2000.
Do you think the actors did a good job playing your family, your wife for instance?
Yeah. I thought they did an excellent job. I think that the two leads, Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis, have gotten a tremendous amount of praise for it too by critics. But [Hope] created a character, she wasn’t just trying to imitate my wife. She was trying to create a character based on my wife, you know, that was a really interesting character, and the character had a lot of my wife’s characteristics. My wife’s a little tougher than Hope was. But of course in those early days she wasn’t quite as tough as she is now.
How has your family reacted to it?
They like it. They like it a lot. Well, I mean they’ve been pleased by it. I don’t think it made any major lifestyle changes or anything like that.
You’ve said that one of your biggest concerns moving forward has been to provide for your family as best you can – do you feel like that’s being realized?
We’ll have to see. I’m getting some extra gigs out of this, but you know, not enough to make me independently wealthy. I’m just hoping that what happens is that I get to work steadily with some of these publications that I’m working for now.
Do people recognize you now on the street?
Not a lot, but once in a while somebody does. It’s nice, ‘cause they usually say, ‘oh hey, I really liked your movie.’ So you know…
What was your experience on set?
It was o.k., except I didn’t really mess around much with…you know, I didn’t go and watch the thing being shot. I mostly hung around for free food. And I liked some of the people connected to it, and the cast and crew, so I used to just go down there and just talk with them and stuff and hang around. I didn’t go to sit there and watch individual scenes being shot.
Aside from your comic work, you also write Jazz and book reviews. Are you currently reviewing anything?
Yeah, I’m reading a book by a guy named Dow Mossman. I’m doing this thing for The Village Voice called “The Stones of Summer,” and I just completed a piece for them on a book called Heartsnatcher, by a legendary French writer, his name is Boris Vian. He died when he was 39.
Do you have a favorite book?
I don’t have any favorite books, I mean, there are so many that are good. I try to read an awful lot. I like Herman Melville’s writing, I like Dostoevsky’s writing, James Joyce’s writing. All kinds of guys…
If you were trying to turn someone onto jazz, would you pick any artist in particular?
Well, I suppose it would depend on how good an ear they had, you know?
Anything recent?
Yeah, there’s a guy named Joe Maneri who’s done some really great stuff lately. He’s an older cat, but he’s a real progressive innovator.
Ed. note: Pekar actually requested a piece by Maneri to be featured in the film’s score. http://www.joemaneri.com.
So are you still collecting vinyl?
No, I’m not buying much in the way of music anymore. I still get a lot of stuff in the mail to review, but I’m trying to get rid of some of the stuff because my house is just overflowing with books and records. You can’t walk any place.
And now that the film is out, do you think your recent web journal will eventually find it’s way into a comic book as well?
Well, they want me to do that. That will be done in October, [but] I wouldn’t be surprised.
