Biography

Early Life
Harvey Pekar was born in 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio and raised above a grocery store his parents owned. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Pekar was bullied as a child as his neighbourhood was mainly populated by a black community. Although, they eventually moved into Shaker Heights which was mostly populated by Jews. Here Pekar was seen as more “tough” after having been bullied and outcasted in his previous neighbourhood (Independent).

In 1965 Harvey started writing for the magazine Jazz Review, while simultaneously drifting between some insignificant jobs. He met Robert Crumb, the main illustrator behind American Splendor, in 1962 and it took about a decade, in 1972, when they finally started collaborating on some small projects. In 1976 the first issue of American Splendor was published after Pekar desired to make something longer (Independent).

Historical Context
Pekar spent his 20's in the 1960's, where America was greatly influenced by free spirited people with anti-establishment attitude. Throughout this time his neighbourhood was filled with hippies and this part of his life played an important part in his stories in American Splendor. For more details about the historical, social, and cultural context that had an impact on Pekar's work visit the this page.

Career Highs and Lows
This was Harvey’s first big break. Pekar continued publishing more issues of American Splendor selling about 10,000 copies for each one. Although, there wasn’t a large market for Pekar’s work as American Splendor was “lumped in with superhero comics by general audiences and ignored by comic book fans who prefered superhero and fantasy” (Saperstein). He made some Television appearances in the late 80’s, but they did not help his sales very much.

After winning a battle against non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Pekar wrote Our Cancer Year in 1994 with his wife Joyce Brabent. The graphic novel documents Harvey’s struggle with cancer and the effects it had on his relationship. Pekar continued working on American Splendor and various other works. In 2003 the film American Splendor told the story of Harvey Pekar’s life (Saperstein). Pekar passed away on July 12th, 2010 after accidentally overdosing on antidepressants (Galbincea).

Works

 * American Splendor (1976-2008)
 * Our Cancer Year (1994)
 * The Quitter (2005)
 * Students for a Democratic Society (2008)
 * The Beats (2009)

Awards

 * American Book Award in 1987 for American Splendor


 * Harvey Award in 1995 for Our Cancer Year