July 13, 2010

Harvey Pekar, RIP

Here's my 2003 review for The American Conservative of American Splendor, in which Paul Giamatti portrayed the underground comic book writer.

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12 comments:

  1. dfadfsdf7/13/10, 12:17 AM

    Great movie.

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  2. l7/13/10, 2:58 AM

    Pekar would have remained a complete unknown were it not for Crumb's love of weirdos and losers.

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  3. MQ7/13/10, 6:50 AM

    Love the R. Crumb quotes. Now there's a genius...great movie made about him too ("Crumb").

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  4. Anonymous7/13/10, 9:02 AM

    I heard that Harvey's brother Harry Pekar was a real dick.

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  5. Marvin7/13/10, 9:33 AM

    I had never heard of Harvey Pekar but I saw this movie after hearing all the critics raving about it. It's a well written well acted movie, but I found it utterly depressing. After watching the movie I had no desire to read any of Pekar's work.

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  6. Anonymous7/13/10, 10:00 AM

    He was a great guest of Letterman's on his NBC show but Dave eventually turned against him.

    I guess HP wasn't far enough to the Left for Dave.

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  7. Jason7/13/10, 10:35 AM

    One of the best movies for understanding Ohio ever made.

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  8. Disgruntled7/13/10, 8:23 PM

    I've always found American Splendor a great "feel good" movie.

    If something isn't going well in my life, I watch it and say to myself, at least I don't live in Cleveland! And then I go surfing.

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  9. TGGP7/13/10, 9:08 PM

    Your point about the "post-modernism" of the middle ages is echoed here.

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  10. Dutch Boy7/14/10, 9:36 AM

    Only in America could that schlemiel Pekar be a celebrity!

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  11. Correction7/14/10, 11:02 AM

    One of the best movies for understanding CLEVELAND ever made.

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  12. Anonymous7/14/10, 2:30 PM

    I think you missed the mark in that review, at least of the comic book part. It' a deeply personal and, I guess, representative view of a shlub living in the 1960's-70's. I was born later. The stories are interesting because they are real. It's not genius, it's just pertinent to my interests, at least.

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