Some thoughts on Harvey Pekar

I'm not a big reader of comic books, but I have lately been reading a few. One series that I plan to read is called American Splendor. The author, Harvey Pekar died a few weeks ago, and I was sorry to hear it. There was something beautiful, familiar, and tragic about the character and maybe the man himself.

On the suggestion of a friend I watched the movie with the same title. The movie stars Paul Giamatti as Pekar and also features pieces of the comics and clips from interviews with Pekar himself. Giamatti does a great job of capturing his physical eccentricities. The comic is auto-biographical and tells the stories of his life. Most of the time Pekar represents himself as a depressed, tragic character whose life is unremarkable except for some of the unfortunate events that he encounters. Many of these brought on by his own attitude.

What makes the comic and the movie interesting is how faithfully he is able to capture the sense of of his characters. He is able to represent the conversation, tone, and pace of his life in a way that feels so real, so familiar, so honest. Most of the stories in the movie are simple, or mundane, or tragic. But, they feel completely real.


What's amazing is that in life's mundane pace, there is so much that is beautiful and interesting, even if it's unremarkable. The beauty and interest arises from the detail. The complexity of real people is interesting, their quirks, their shallow conversation and their trite interests. I found the man's work so rich. It's as though in his negative, complaining attitude, he's obligated to record and portray the complexities and eccentricities of real people. To sum up what I took away from the movie: In its richness life is wonderful, even when the dominant theme is suffering.