INTERVIEW: Comix Legend and Creator of American Splendor – Harvey Pekar
Going back a bit to your job as a file clerk… You make mention of the fact that it’s where the bulk of you income comes from… Your stories many times are based on your financial concerns… At the same time you’re completely opposed to commercialism and ‘selling out’… Have there been any opportunities you’ve given up that might have been financially beneficial to you that you turned down based on artistic integrity?
NO… ACTUALLY, I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SELL OUT!! I mean if I KNEW how to sell out… I mean I haven’t given in to commercialism because I DON’T KNOW HOW TO give in to commercialism… If I DID, I might have done it a long time ago!!
Really? No one has EVER made an offer, like to make an animated version of American Splendor?
Ahhh nooooo..
REALLY?
I mean, there were a couple of people interested before HBO, in doing a movie based on my stories and nothing happened… and it just seemed real implausible that someone would wanna spend even as little as a million dollars on a movie based on a comic book that sold a couple of thousand issues a year.
But you were a celebrity on David Letterman… I’ve known of you since I was a kid… the name Harvey Pekar has always been a big name to me… NO one has ever thought of cashing in on that??
Nahh, I never got any kind of offers… In fact when I went on Letterman’s show, the main reason I went on his show was to improve the circulation of my book and find more customers.. But I didn’t… the sales did NOT improve.
Wow…
But, with the movie they DID improve… I dunno, the movie made a bigger impact than my appearance on Letterman I guess … It got hundreds and hundreds of reviews and… I’m not taking credit for it, but it was a pretty good movie and it won a Sundance Award.
Which just shows you that your story is compelling… It would stand to reason that an animated cartoon based on your stories would be a success…
Well, I mean RIGHT NOW, I’m doing OK… Of course I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know, something bad to happen… I’m always fearing that there’s something bad around the corner… something I got from my mother… you know pessimism.. She’s always telling me “There’s another HITLER AROUND THE CORNER”… ALWAYS STUFF LIKE THAT…
You’ve never left Cleveland, you continued to work at the hospital, your entire legacy is based on elevating the daily struggle to literary heights or as you say the ”QUOTIDIEN LIFE”… You’re entire existence has been shaped by the routines you’ve entrenched yourself in… It’s a pretty common phenomenon with geniuses… Have you always been a creature of habit? Do you consider yourself a genius?
I’ve never seen a satisfactory definition of the word genius so I just assume not get into that.
OK… LITERARY genius…
Yeah I know, but I mean, it doesn’t really mean anything to me to be a genius… I’ll accept when someone says you really did a good job on something or even a great job on something… OK that’s fine, but if someone tells me I’m a genius well I don’t really know what a genius is… It’s used very loosely and maybe it should be cut out of our vocabulary… I’m thinking that some people think a genius is someone who has a high IQ even though he’s not creative…
Everyone has their own idea of what a genius is… What was the other question?
Have you always been a creature of habit?
Yeah… I’ve always been kind of compulsive… Obsessive and compulsive.. Always ruminating… thinking about stuff over and over…
That’s tied into depression… I have the same thing… You started your odyssey off creating a new paradigm, taking what the underground comix movement did to the next level… Your early stuff was existential, powerful, filled with yearning… How has your work changed/impacted by your wife and kid?
Well, not too much… I mean… I don’t think they had any… the direction that I chose to move in was already established before I met them… My wife originally contacted me because I was, in her eyes anyway, an established comic book artist. She wanted me to get her an issue of one of my comix that had gotten away from her.. So that’s how we started corresponding and then finally met each other..
How has your work been changed/impacted by your health crises?
Well it made me more fearful… I worried MORE than I usually did… Now I’m 68 years old and I’m not running any faster… so I guess I’m in physical decline and that sort of depresses me… when I can’t jump over something like I used to be able to…
Reading this article, all I could think of is how a piece on this website about some vapid, talentless fuckwad gets dozens of comments defending said vapid, talentless fuckwad. That Harvey Pekar has not been given his proper due of success and financial security for his body of work is an absolute fucking crime.
It is incredible isn’t it.
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This is a great interview, thanks for posting it. I’ve never really read an at-length interview with Harvey Pekar before, and I think you asked a great range of questions. I loved your capitalized response when he said that his wife had sold his records!
American Splendor was a great comic, and I think what Pekar did just keeping it going year after year was really impressive. It was a real work of art, and it is a true loss that he has passed away. My best wishes go out to his friends and family.
Thanks.. Harvey’s passing is a great loss.. Heartens me to see how appreciated he was..