num_pages: 336
description: Experience the heartwarming all-American story of a crank and his comic book. What's a file clerk from Cleveland doing with an Oscar nomination? How did a movie about Harvey Pekar win the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival? The story begins in 1976, when Harvey began publishing his autobiographical, slice-of-downtrodden-life comic book series American Splendor, illustrated by a who's who of underground comic artists, including R. Crumb, Kevin Brown, Greg Budgett, Sean Carroll, Sue Cavey, Gary Dumm, Val Mayerik, and Gerry Shamray. After self-publishing American Splendor for nearly two decades under less than splendid conditions (and racking impressive accolades in the process), Harvey finally got a break when Dark Horse Comics took over the publication in the early 1990s. It was an opportunity for Harvey to reach a wider audience which, as it turned out, included a few Hollywood types, too. (Who knew?) But that's another story. . . .Now we are happy to bring you the Best of American Splendor, a collection of some of Harvey's greatest work. Harvey Pekar has been compared to Theodore Dreiser, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Lenny Bruce, but this collection is a true American original. Just like Harvey.
language: English
title: Best of American Splendor
titlecomplete: Best of American Splendor
genres: American, Humor, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Comics, Autobiography, Nonfiction, Comix, Memoir, Graphic Novels
ratings_count: 1083
places: New York City, New York, Ohio
series: American Splendor, American Splendor (collected editions)
publisher: Ballantine Books