Comic book cult hero was the subject of 2003 Oscar-nominated biopic. By Eric Ditzian Harvey Pekar Photo: Frederick M. Brown/ Getty Images Famed comic book author Harvey Pekar has died at the age of 70, The Associated Press reports. He was found dead in his Cleveland Heights, Ohio, home early Monday (July 12). Pekar had been suffering from prostate cancer, asthma, high blood pressure and depression, according to Cleveland Heights Police Capt. Michael Cannon. He had gone to bed about 4:30 p.m. on Sunday and was discovered between a bed and dresser. His wife, Joyce Brabner, called officers at around 1 a.m. The irascible comic writer, long a beloved cult figure, reached a whole new audience in 2003, when Paul Giamatti played him in the Oscar-nominated biopic, “American Splendor.” Pekar also appeared as himself in the film, which was both a postmodern exploration of Pekar’s life and a dramatization of his autobiographical comics, also called “American Splendor.” “The filmmakers took a major risk by incorporating the real Harvey and Joyce and their oddball Cleveland friends into the film, and by introducing occasional elements of cartoon illustration into the story,” Kurt Loder wrote of the film. “This could have been a mess, but it works brilliantly, poetically, unforgettably. In a summer of lumbering, soulless Hollywood blockbusters, ‘American Splendor’ shines out like a diamond on a dunghill.” Not an artist himself, Pekar recruited iconic illustrator R. Crumb in 1976 to create the art for “American Splendor,” which followed Pekar’s struggles with work, finances and general boredom. A long list of other artists would eventually illustrate the series, which Pekar continued to write until 2008. In the 1980s, Pekar became an occasional guest on “Late Night With David Letterman,” where he openly battled with the host and heavily criticized General Electric, which owns NBC. The author was eventually banned from the show, until being invited back the next decade. Mr. Pekar was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1990, and he documented the experience in the graphic novel, “Our Cancer Year.” “I’m always shook up and nervous and I’ve got the hospital record to prove it,” Pekar told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2003. “I wake up every morning in a cold sweat, regardless of how well things went the day before. And put that I said that in a somewhat but not completely tongue-in-cheek way.” Share your memories of Harvey Pekar’s work in the comments below.
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Harvey Pekar, ‘American Splendor’ Writer, Dead At 70
