Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Harvey Pekar RIP

Please watch this HYSTERICALLY FUNNY clip from the American Splendor film!!!

Some great comments in that Cleveland thread, rhino.

AS is one of my all-time favorite movies. When it first hit the screens, I was working for the Gummint myself, doing the clerical thing. All the other clerks were yammering on a Friday about various blockbusters that they wanted to see over the weekend and I just rolled my eyes.

"THIS [AS] is the movie you should go see!" I told them. "Look, you can see rocketships and dinosaurs and that other junk any damn weekend! This movie's about US!!"

They all looked at me, briefly, like I'd lost my marbles, then went back to their discussion.

Good-bye, Harvey. [snif!]

Pekar was never my cuppa tea, but I hate to hear that another creative mind is gone.

R.I.P. Harvey.

The only book I own by either Pekar or Robert Crumb is... the post-movie collection of the American Splendor strips they did together.

I usually can't handle Crumb's excesses or Pekar's mannerisms, but somehow when they work together, they cancel each other's weaknesses out. Then I can finally see why other people rave about their work so much.

I remember him mostly from Letterman's classic Late Night show on NBC (SO much better than his CBS Late Show). He was among Dave's more regular guests (like Teri Garr among several others), and I know he was on so much because he and Pekar had this rough adversarial chemistry. I miss Late Night, and I miss the role Harvey played on it.

Ironic. I just finished reading a book he edited. Best American Comics of 2006, I think it was called. It must have been around the 13th. My computer's been down for a month, so I hadn't heard he passed away until now.