World Famous Comics: The New American Splendor Anthology: From Off the Streets of Cleveland
The New American Splendor Anthology: From Off the Streets of Cleveland
By: Harvey Pekar Publisher: Running Press Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 300 Publication Date: January 22, 1993 Studio: Running Press
American Splendor is the series that sparked a revolution in comics and brought graphic novels to the attention of post-adolescent readers everywhere. Here is the best of American Splendor and other comics by Harvey Pekar, including never-before-seen material.
Vignettes From The Lands of the Western Reserve ^ Since I was born and raised in Cleveland, this anthology done by Harvey Pekar intrigued me. Right from the start it caught my attention with the story "Pa-ayper-Reggs!!" This first vignette told the story of Russian/Polish Jewish peddlers which were so prevalent on the streets of East Cleveland from the 1920's through the 1950's. My earliest memories were of these horse drawn wagons being driven by these old Eastern European men shouting "Pa-ayper-Reggs!!" For those of you who don't know what this says it's actually a plea to collect old paper rags. What I really remember was that my Mother said that despite their looks these were men of wealth. Obviously this taught me that wealth can't be assessed on looks alone. The stories spun from Pekar's hand are eclectic and are told in no particular chronological order. The subjects range from Harvey's childhood to his school years through to his rather ordinary job as a VA office clerk. His background shows his Eastern Jewish roots and in many of his stories he tells of his parent's lives and beliefs and how they raised him in the suburbs of Cleveland Heights. As story after story unravels, we see a man of above average intellect confronting everyday problems most of us confront every day. He surprisingly tells of his foibles and mistakes along with his temper that he inherited from his Father. Many of the depictions show areas of Cleveland well known to inhabitants of the Western Reserve. Among the depictions we see "The West Side Market", "Cedar and Lee" and "Hopkins International Airport". Also I found the stories concerning his TV appearances on the David Letterman Show to be very confrontational and a contra-snub to all things "New York City". Pekar's intellectual argument to Eastern snobbery shows the essence of what we call the toughness and grit of life on the streets of Cleveland. Pekar's stories involve the everyday common man trying to negotiate the ebbs and flows of routine day in and day out lives. Harvey's views of life are far from the Eastern upper crust Jews of the East who matriculate from Ivy League colleges. His intellectual capacity is what it is in the East, but life as he experiences it represents life at the level which most people live at in the Midwest. American Splendor continues to capture life at the very precipice where the East meets the Midwest and that would be Northeast Ohio. This is great graphic story telling from Pekar's hand. I don't possess enough stars!!!
american splendor ^ Nice comic book. Maybe sometimes the arts are a little bit overwhelming cause of lack of colors. But still ok.
Fantastic ^ This was fantastic and everything I expected. I was familiar with Pekar from his appearances on Letterman in the 80s and could not locate the graphic novellas at that time. When the movie came out, I began my search again and someone informed me the collections were on Amazon.
A walkin' an' talkin' man ^ This new collection of Harvey Pekar's quotidian American Splendor comic is not only an excellent introduction for those new to his work; it's also a great anthology for those of us who have read and loved him for years (especially since, toward the end of the volume, some of his very early stuff is collected).
Some of the most gemutliche, warmest pieces in the collection feature characters from Pekar's VA hospital days. Toby is present several times, but my personal favorite of all the VA panels is "Walkin' an' Talkin," where in just two pages Pekar captures the warmth, humor, and generosity of his co-workers. Three stories beautifully speak to Pekar's paranoia and his obsessive-compulsiveness: "Hysteria," "Lost and Found" (a story which introduced me to the novelist Italo Svevo, whom I've since come to really love), and "Time Flies...Time Drags." Three more stories speak to Pekar's painful history with David Letterman, including a documentary on his final appearance on the Letterman Show in which he tried to let the world know that GE, ABC's owner, engaged in morally dubious practices. (If you get the chance to watch any of the Letterman/Pekar exchanges, it's a real experience. Letterman comes across as such a smarmy yuppie, who really seems to delight in trying to humiliate Pekar.)
Also included in the volume is one of the delightful oral histories of Cleveland's Jewish life in the early twentieth century, illustrated by R. Crumb, and three single page stories illustrated in Drew Friedman's wonderful faux-photographic style.
But there are also a couple of disconcerting stories: "Broken Window" and "Festering." Both of them suggest that Harvey was attacked on at least a couple of occasions by an out-of-control father. Could this be true? Just a couple of years ago in a radio interview, Harvey described his father in quite different terms.
A great collection from a guy who walks an' talks the ordinary life.
A great place to be introduced to Harvey and June ^ If you can't love Harvey Pekar, you can't love anyone. He is a lovely man, with as many neuroses as the rest of us, who listens and watches and reports on the people and world around him. His kindness and caring for the people who populate his world - these are real stories with real people Harvey knows, including his family- is obvious and makes reading his work a delight. I found the Pekar books to be like peanuts - I kept wanting more and more and hate to finish one - unless I have another ready to read. Harvey's 'comics" are the first graphic novels I've spent time reading, and I am hooked. The drawings add immeasurably to the story - a format I would like to see developed further in the future.
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