Harvey Pekar

Nobody could have guessed that a prickly, clinically depressed file clerk at a VA hospital in Cleveland would wind up being revered by generations of comic artists, illustrators, and writers for pioneering a new approach to a neglected medium but, then again, there's never been anyone quite like Harvey Pekar. Recognizing his gift for transforming the mundane details of life into something moving, profound, or flat-out funny, legendary cartoonist R. Crumb took some of Pekar's earliest stories in 1972 and turned them into comics; he showed the rest to other cartoonists, suggesting they try illustrating them as well. From this grab-bag approach, Pekar's multi-issue magnum opus American Splendor was born, and it maintained that revolving cartoonist policy, keeping the look fresh—though inconsistent in quality—through thirty-nine editions. Along the way, Splendor opened the door for dozens of cartoonists—from Alison Bechdel to Jim Woodring—who would later achieve prominence on their own. In 2003, American Splendor was brilliantly adapted to film, preserving Pekar's vision and cranky personality through Paul Giamatti's feisty portrayal. Though also a respected jazz critic, Pekar will rightly be remembered for American Splendor and its depiction of his life and the lives of the weird, overlooked, and disenfranchised people around him. His respect for his subjects and ear for colloquial dialogue brought a kind of realism to comics that was startlingly new when it appeared—and created a standard for every real-life comic that followed it.