American Comic Book Icon Harvey Pekar Dies at Age 70

Famed comic book writer Harvey Pekar died at age 70, according to Entertainment Weekly. The author of American Splendor, a series of autobiographical comic books written from 1976 until September of 2008, followed Pekar's life as an ordinary American in Cleveland, Ohio. Those who knew Pekar, including actor Paul Giamatti, knew him to be "one of the most compassionate and empathetic human beings... and there is no one to replace him." Giamatti played Pekar in New Line Cinema's film version of American Splendor in 2003. Others remembered him as "original," "brilliant," and "a big soul."

Pekar's Influence

Harvey Pekar should be remembered as an American artist first and foremost. His take on everyday life in urban America sought to make connections with normal people who could relate to his struggles of making money, raising a family, and trying to live the American dream. That his medium was in comic book form is irrelevant. Pekar was keenly aware of what it meant to be a typical American, and that is why he is so popular.

Pekar was an icon to me not because I met him in person, or because he shook my hand one day, but because his works spoke to me as a human being. His comics found their way into my frame of vision having grown up on Batman and Superman comics, with the occasional Transformers or Star Wars thrown in for good measure. Harvey Pekar wasn't thrilling to read, but he made me laugh in college when I found him on-file at my college library.

Reading Harvey Pekar was touching the Divine for me. He was human, that was for sure. But Pekar spoke a language that few could. Most of his lines and images were of mundane human existence in America but the buildup was unmistakable. Pekar could spend three pages working up to a one-liner that spoke more than the 300 previous words he wrote. Seeing him age, grow bald, and raise a family was summed up neatly in his yearly books. Pekar was a master storyteller who could turn on a dime, and his indelible work stayed with me into middle age. Struggling to make a decent life is as American as apple pie, Superman, taxes, death, and military service.

In my own life, I can certainly relate to the way Pekar's life unfolded. Although he worked for the Veteran's Administration in his younger days, I could tell his one true love was writing comics. Even though I work a job that pays the bills and affords me the house, my one true love is writing. I may never reach my dream of being able to quit my day job and take on novel writing as a career, but I can certainly use Harvey Pekar as a model.

Norman Rockwell, Paul Harvey, and James Thurber are all in the same class as Harvey Pekar. They were able to paint a lush landscape of American life in few strokes, words, and vistas that captured the essence of what it meant to be alive in this country. These people made life in the United States tolerable when things got tough. When I was a struggling collegian trying to just get on with my life having worked my butt off for grades, food, rent and trying to start a family, I remembered that I was not alone.

Entertainment Weekly provided information for this article.