Goodbye Mister Pekar

Independent comic book writer and overall lovable curmudgeon Harvey Pekar has passed away at age 70. Pekar came to mainstream prominence with the release of the movie, American Splendor, based on his autobiographical comic of the same name. The movie intercut between Paul Giamatti as Pekar and actual footage of Pekar talking about his life and the making of his movie. Harvey Pekar and his wife Joyce Brabner collaborated on a book about Harvey's initial battle with testicular cancer called, Our Cancer Year. The book is an acclaimed biopic about a tumultuous time in the life of a man who became a celebrity almost by accident.
For years Pekar toiled in the field of medical records while writing his comic book, American Splendor which teamed him up with the likes of comic great Robert Crumb, Gary Dumm, Greg Budgett, Spain Rodriguez, Joe Zabel, Gerry Shamray, Frank Stack, Mark Zingarelli, and Joe Sacco. DC Vertigo released a four issue mini series of American Splendor, written once again by Pekar a few years ago. Pekar worked with Dean Haspiel on an early biography about his life, entitled, The Quitter.
Harvey Pekar is one of the few independent creators who has enjoyed mainstream successes with the movie about his life and career, as well as becoming something of an institution in the comic book industry himself. He is well known and well loved for his usually pessimistic out look on life and being able to turn that into a very long career with American Splendor.
In closing, I think the industry should turn out in support of a man who stumbled into the comic book industry and became a true giant. I would wholeheartedly sponsor an independent creator award named after Mr. Pekar.

Harvey Lawrence Pekar October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010