Harvey Pekar creates extraordinary art out of ordinary life. His
ongoing comic book stories use the mundane detail of everyday existence. But in
the flat nowhere zone he’s inhabited all his years, he also finds joy and
meaning and sometimes revelation.
He started writing comicsin the ’70s, providing text for a series of illustrators
(including comic-book artist Robert Crumb), and drawing inspiration from his
day job as a file clerk. The books earned him a cult following and guest spots
on the Late Show with David Letterman in the ’80s. Then in 2003 came the movie American
Splendor, which moved the counter-culture everyman further towards
pop-culture phenomenon.
He’ll be at the Dryden Theatre on November 6 to discuss the film based
on his life and work. He’ll also be receiving Writers and Books’ Sense of Place
Award. Pekar spoke with City from his
home in Cleveland. What follows is an edited transcript of his part of the
conversation.
“When I was a little kid and
read comics, I just thought it was a kid’s medium and there’s nothing more to
be done with them. I had a big collection when I was a kid. But my mom got rid
of them. Then I met Robert Crumb in 1962 and he showed me a book he was working
on, the Big Yum Yum Book, an adult
comic book novel. I thought, ‘Wow! You can do anything in comics.’ You can deal
with any subject you want to. Comics are words and pictures. And novels are
just words.
“I think comics are a better form. The novel is relatively well
explored, compared to comics. With comics, practically nothing’s been done.
They just started making comic books and distributing them in the 1930s. And a
whole hell of a lot of that is with the superhero stuff. What got me into
comics was that I was interested in autobiographical writing. I ran across a
notebook I had when I was about 19 years old, in 1959 or so. I was doing an
autobiographical story. And I later turned that into a comic book story.
“I wanted to write autobiographical comics and I wanted to do them
about everyday life. I always was the guy who thought, ‘I’m doomed to have a
shit job for the rest of my life.’ Everything I was good at, I used to get
worried about and I’d quit, everything from sports to college. I’d start
catastrophysing. I was a real bad obsessive-compulsive case.
“I sort of snuck up on it writing comics, going step by step. It wasn’t
like I was worried about screwing up. Like when I worked at the post office I
used to always be obsessed with the possibility that when I went to bundle the
mail, to send out on the route, I wouldn’t tie the string tight enough and the
stuff would be all over the place. It never happened. I had all these kind of
crazy… well, I don’t know, maybe they weren’t so crazy… maybe I’m just
totally incompetent mechanically.
“That does have something to do with it. I can’t use the computer.
Well, if my wife or my kid gets me started on the computer then I can do. I
can’t do email. And cell phones make me crazy. There’s something to my having a
dim opinion of my prospects.
“The moment of truth is coming closer and closer. I’ve got several
books that are going to be published in the next year. One of them is Our Movie Year. One of them is about a
period in my life when I was quitting everything. And I wrote a book — they’d
call it a graphic novel, though it’s an autobiography — about when I was a
kid. It’s sort of a prequel to the American
Splendor movie. If they don’t sell, then I’m screwed. I don’t make enough
to make it on my pension.
“I’m just starting to get the payoff now, with the movie. You know, I
was on David Letterman and that
didn’t help me at all. Everybody on the show gets minimum payment. That’s why I
had hassles with him. I wasn’t getting anything out of the show. It wasn’t
selling comic books. It wasn’t paying me anything. And on top of that I was
supposed to be a robot for him. Just do what he wants. I got tired of doing a
self-parody all the time.
“My new book contains stories that I wrote while the movie was going
on, while the promotion was going on, while I was out hustling the movie. It
also contains stories that have to do with why I got into comics in the first
place.
“I’ve got to admit that people are contacting me more now. I just did a
thing for the New York Times. I have
a hard time believing it will always be that way. This may just be my own
hang-up. But for so long I went on and didn’t sell any kind of books to speak
of and couldn’t come close to making a living as a comic book writer, which I
would really want to do. I thought I’d never be able to sell anything. After
the movie, they put out an anthology of my work and the thing sold. I was just
amazed. I couldn’t believe it.
“I don’t live a celebrity’s life. I don’t know if I’d know what to do
with freedom if I got it. I’m just a homebody kind of guy. I don’t like to
travel. I just sit around and read and write.”
Harvey Pekar will be in
Rochester on Saturday, November 6. He will receive Writers & Books’ Sense
of Place Award at 5 p.m. (for information call W&B at 473-2590) and
introduce the screening of American
Splendor at 8 p.m. The events are at the George Eastman House, 900 East
Avenue. Tickets for the movie screening are $10. 271-3361
This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2004.
