Written by Harvey PekarArt by Ho Che Anderson, Zachary Baldus, Hilary Barta, Greg Budgett, Gary Dumm, Eddie Campbell, Richard Corben, Hunt Emerson, Bob Fingerman, Rick Geary, Dean Haspiel, Gibert Hernandez, Leonardo Manco, Josh Neufeld, Chris Samnee, Ty Templeton, Steve Vance, Chris Weston, and Chandler Wood
This is the first that I've read any of the late Harvey Pekar's autobiographical comics series American Splendor
, and I was surprised by two things. The first is the caliber of artist involved in this anthology project. Look over the list above - there are some incredible artists contributing here. What I enjoyed most about that is seeing the different ways in which they draw Harvey. He's always recognizable, but each artist plays with his image subtly, emphasizing different aspects of his personality or appearance. I think Richard Corben's take on him was the furthest from the mark, but it was still very cool to see how he went about it. I love Chris Weston's contribution, and am always up for some Ty Templeton.The second thing that surprised me was the utter aimlessness of the writing. I expected that Pekar's stories would be small, slice of life things, built around the struggles of everyday life. What I didn't expect was that they would be so dull in their depiction of the quotidian. A typical story in this collection has Harvey get up in the morning, go to the bank, and then go to the pharmacy to get his prescription filled. When it isn't ready, he has to go to the HMO. End of story. There is no observation about life, or lesson learned; that's just it.
Another good example has him call over the neighbour to help him fix the toilet. Then he feels gratitude. That's it. There's another toilet-fixing story earlier in the book, but at least in that one, we can revel in Harvey's victory. Better stories involve conflict with his foster daughter, and there is one in which he remembers hurting a friend as a child. These fit better into the autobiographical mode. I know that the minute attention to boring detail was Pekar's thing; it just doesn't make for compelling reading. Thankfully, the art is really good.
1 comment:
There is no observation about life, or lesson learned; that's just it.
This is often the point of his writing -- that you just live life and there's often no point. You just live it. But if you go back to his earlier writing you will find more 'lessons' if that's what you need.
In any case this book isn't a good place to start with Pekar. Go back to the Crumb issues if you want the 'fun' stuff.
Post a Comment