Review and Reception

What started out as an idea, grew into something even larger when Harvey Pekar first decided to create his series of graphic memoirs. During this time period, comics such as Marvel and underground comics had begun to settle down and faced distribution difficulties. Yet despite all that, Pekar managed to rise to fame through his smart tactics in distribution.

In 1993, Pekar stated that in his first year alone he printed over 10,000 copies of his comic and managed to sell 75 percent of it. Tony Isabella, a comics store owner and Marvel and DC editor, mentioned in an interview that,

"By the time the third issue came out, I had bought a comics store in the heart of downtown Cleveland. I ordered a minimum of 50 copies of each new issue, which I soon raised to an even hundred. I kept all the back issues in stock as well. Add up the new sales and the back issue sales and American Splendor was selling as well as X-Men for me."

Not only did the comics receive positive reviews, the film adaptation was an even bigger success. For anyone who was not aware of the comics before, surely have heard of it now because of the movie. Featuring Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis, the film has been highly praised with a 7.5/10 on IMDb, 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4/4 by Roger Ebert.