Harvey Pekar

Hailed as a literary laureate of the Everyman, curmudgeonly comic book scribe Harvey Pekar essayed the banal moments of daily life with clarity and honesty in his series of graphic novels, American Splendor, for nearly 40 years. An Ohio native, he first became fascinated by the possibilities of sequential art storytelling after meeting underground comics legend Robert Crumb in the early 1960s. Nearly 10 years later, with the encouragement and artistic contributions of Crumb, Pekar self-published the first issue of American Splendor in 1976. Even as his book gained an increasingly loyal following over the years, his chronic self-doubt and anxieties over finances kept him shackled to his job as a file clerk at the local Veteran's Administration hospital until his eventual retirement in 2001. During the 1980s Pekar met and married his third wife, Joyce Brabner, an early fan of his work who would later collaborate with him on several projects. Later, Pekar gained wider notoriety with a series of contentious appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman" (NBC, 1982-1993). After a particularly awkward on-air rant in 1988, Pekar found himself banned from the show for life. With the release of the biographical film adaptation "American Splendor" (2003), Pekar's reputation and recognition were at an all time high. And yet, despite the professional success, as well as a lasting marriage and family, the author remained plagued by depression and chronic health issues for the remainder of his life. When once asked about his literary legacy, Pekar described American Splendor as "a series of day-after-day activities that have more influence on a person than any spectacular or traumatic events. It's the 99 percent of life that nobody ever writes about."