American Splendor: Unsung Hero
*Starred Review* Pekar, the dean of autobiographical comics thanks to the long-runningAmerican Splendor, is no egoist. He is quite willing to tell someone else's good true story, as this corralling of three recentASissues confirms. It consists of the Vietnam War recollections of Robert McNeill, one of Pekar's African American coworkers at Cleveland's VA hospital. With his parents' permission, optimistically granted because he was no star in high school, 17-year-old McNeill enlisted in the marines, which meant pretty much immediate service at the front in exchange for early discharge. He saw a lot of action, beginning stateside near Camp Pendleton in California, where crooks regarded young soldiers as disposable marks (a buddy of McNeill's was robbed and killed), but climaxing in several battles "in country." Moreover, there was racial tension in the ranks, and clumsy efforts to stifle black soldiers' solidarity. Glimpsed only while taking down or mutely reacting to McNeill's words, Pekar writes solely in his friend's voice. Collier's blunt-edged, heavy-figured drawing style--like but more massive than those of two of Pekar's preferred collaborators, R. Crumb and Frank Stack--suits McNeill's unpretentious narration about perfectly.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved