Ed Piskor (1982–2024)

Life, Tribute

I’m not sure what to say about Ed Piskor except that it is all so sad. I knew Ed — albeit peripherally — and it’s a big deal when someone in your circle dies — especially at their own hand.

I don’t know enough about the situation with the young cartoonist to really weigh in. Ed’s suicide letter and the background of COVID isolation, etc., provides more context, but I can definitely see that he came off as a creeper. And that behavior is a real problem in our industry.

But what I really inferred from Ed’s letter was that his entire ego and identity were unhealthily tied to his life as a cartoonist. Last week, when it appeared that his livelihood was being taken from him, it must have felt like EVERYTHING had been taken from him. And that’s what led him to take his own life.

It’s hard for me to reconcile this with the Ed that I knew, because I was only really acquainted with him at the very beginning of his career. Ed reached out to me and Dean Haspiel back when HE was the young cartoonist, only 21 years of age. He was just starting to work with Harvey Pekar and he wanted to connect with us to know what our experiences were with the famed curmudgeonly writer.

We could see why Harvey was attracted to Ed’s talent — his artwork was so clearly influenced by underground luminaries like Crumb and Shelton. (Piskor’s work always reminded me a bit of Derf’s: they both took their weaknesses — drawing relatable people — and made it their strengths.) Even at that tender age, Ed struck me as someone who was all-in on the cartoonist life — for better or worse.

Ed, Dean, Harvey, and I all ended up together a few years later at SPX 2005. We did a panel together, and I drew the SPX program cover that year, featuring Harvey signing books for fans – and Ed, Dean, and myself as bobbleheads. (There had been a Harvey Pekar bobblehead sold in conjunction with the American Splendor movie, which I guess is where I got the idea!)

That was when I first met Ed in person, which was a bit of a surprise. His hip-hop getup of a ball cap, Public Enemy T-shirt, and dark glasses struck me as a pose. Was it ironic or serious? In reality, he seemed shy and insecure (in other words, like every other cartoonist). I came to see Ed’s outfit as his “convention uniform” — maybe his way of protecting himself from feeling too vulnerable when he emerged from behind the drawing table?

I kind of lost touch with Ed after he did Macedonia with Harvey. I really dug his Hip Hop Family Tree stuff, but I haven’t followed his work since then, other than to remark how prolific he was and how much he grew as an artist. (Dean and I interviewed Ed for our American Splendor podcast back in 2019, but that was the first time I had interacted with Ed in probably ten years.) And I never saw how he was around women and female fans.

The portrait of Ed that emerges from his letter is of a guy who only felt at home when he was making comics, or talking about comics on his YouTube show. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it doesn’t appear he had many, if any, strong human connections — romantic relationships, family — to keep him on track both during and after COVID. The isolation of COVID was real! I thank my lucky stars every day that I had Sari and Phoebe during those years.

Yes, Ed made some unquestionably bad choices… but nothing actually criminal, right? He was troubled. We all are. And I don’t imagine that his accusers feel that what he did was worthy of him dying! Yet that is where we sit today.

# # #

Carol Tyler — who knew him better than I did — had some wise things to say about all this.

Contemporary Literature interview

Publicity

Contemporary Literature vol. 61, no. 2 — *Contemporary Literature* Summer 2021 (vol. 61, no. 2)

Jonathan Najarian interviewed me about my work for Contemporary Literature, a journal published out of the University of Wisconsin.

In his introduction to the interview, Jon discusses various projects of mine, including A.D.; “The Trump-Russia memos“; “Bahrain: Lines in Ink, Lines in the Sand“; “Supply-Chain Superhero“; “A Tale of Two Pandemics,” and others. I was really struck by Jon’s close reading of my work, and his appreciation for the visual details I spend so much time putting in.

The interview is fun to look back on and read—it’s a real conversation, with some good back & forth, and I felt Jon’s questions really pushed me to go deep in my answers. Topics we discussed include whether comics journalism is “real” journalism, what subjects call out to be treated in comics form, collaborating with Brooke Gladstone, how comics are treated in the U.S. as compared to France, the media and Donald Trump, and the insertion of myself into my stories. Shout-outs to Joe Sacco, Scott McCloud, Harvey Pekar, Dean Haspiel, Martha Rosler, and Sari Wilson.

I can say for a fact that Jon’s intro and the interview itself is the most serious treatment of my stuff that I’ve yet seen. I’m blushing here!

Anyway, there’s a short excerpt from the piece here, but I think you have to have an academic journal subscription, or pay a one-time fee, to read the whole thing online.

The Josh Neufeld Name Story NFT

Comics, Life, Work

There’s a funny story in today’s New York Times about a battle for supremacy that took place on Saturday in Lincoln, Nebraska, with a bunch of guys named Josh. It couldn’t be more apropos because I just drew this humorous one-pager on the story of my name. Touching upon my being Jewish, growing up different, Star Wars, Superboy, and so much more, the comic has fun with our current obsession with identity and self-discovery. (By the way, I have only ever run into one guy with my exact name—the Canadian Josh Neufeld is a professor of microbial ecology and a very nice fellow).

For those in the know, “The Josh Neufeld Name Story” is also an homage to a story by Harvey Pekar, illustrated by R. Crumb, which first appeared in American Splendor #2 (1977). (As I’m sure you know, I was an artist for Pekar on American Splendor for 15 years.) (The best online link to the original story I could find was this mashup of the comic and Dan Castellaneta’s monologue of it from the American Splendor play produced in 1990. [starts at 1:13].)

Furthermore, my piece is not the first comics reference to “The Harvey Pekar Name Story”—Damon Herd did an homage to the Pekar/Crumb piece back in 2013. And of course the story was dramatized in the American Splendor movie… But I like to think my piece puts a different spin on it.

Anyway, I often use the Pekar comic and a set of prompts I created as part of a workshop where I have students draw their own “name story.” Whether they’re high school art students or people who may have never drawn a comic in their lives before, the results are always fascinating. They help the students get into the “comics space” and enable me to learn a little about each participant.

But it always bothered me that—until now—I had never done my own name story. It’s one of the first autobio comics I’ve drawn in a while, and I enjoyed the experience—hearkening back to those halcyon Keyhole days! (Talking about Keyhole, and my long-time collaborator Dean Haspiel, he and I talk about “The Harvey Pekar Name Story” quite a bit in episode 28 of our podcast Scene by Scene with Josh & Dean…)

On a separate note, because I’m fascinated by the emergence of the NFT (or non-fungible token), I am announcing that I am auctioning off the hi-rez NFT of this comic! It seems appropriate that a piece like this—which I created entirely digitally—would become an NFT, which after all helps artists in this age of endless digital copies to benefit from their work. Plus, the comic is a double-layered reference to a previous original story, which somehow also seems appropriate.

To tie it back to Pekar, I will donate 25% of any proceeds from the auction to the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library (which features a memorial desk and statue dedicated to Pekar). So hopefully some Pekar/Neufeld fans out there will open their digital wallet for this particular NFT. You can find the auction—and bid it on—here. Otherwise, just read it for free right here!

Anyhoo, enough talk for a frickin’ one-page comic! Here it is, in all its “glory”—“The Josh Neufeld Name Story”:

Scene by Scene with Josh and Dean DEBUT

Comics, Geek, Plug, Publicity, Tribute

I’m excited and proud to announce the launch of SCENE BY SCENE WITH JOSH & DEAN, a new weekly podcast I’m co-hosting with Dean Haspiel.

This season we will be breaking down the 2003 film American Splendor, scene by scene (thus the title!), talking about Harvey Pekar, our collaborations with him, and the joys & challenges of being professional cartoonists.

I was inspired by the burgeoning movement of “minute-by-minute” podcasts to launch this show, and am so thrilled to have Dino as my co-host. We’ve been friends and comics colleagues since high school, and Dean is one of the most talented and entertaining human beings I know. The fact that he also worked for Harvey for a long time — AND was integral to the American Splendor movie happening — made it a no-brainer.

Harvey Pekar has been deceased now for almost ten years, and it’s time people started talking about him again. (After all, it’s impossible to imagine iconic TV shows “about nothing” like Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm without the example of the original “ordinary life is pretty complex stuff” American Splendor.)

In the podcast Dean and I will analyze each scene of the movie in order, episode by episode, with analysis, humor, and inside information. We promise to reveal previously unexplored connections between the original American Splendor comics and the film’s construction, and Harvey’s life & career,

Just as importantly, each episode will also serve as a jumping-off point for talking about Dean’s and my own careers. Topics will include the nature of identity, truth in art, and the realm of memoir/autobiography.

We’re having a lot of fun doing the podcast, and I think it shows — the tone is very much in the spirit of our friendship, irreverent and playful.

Guests on the podcast will include other former Pekar collaborators, as well as actors, filmmakers, and producers.

And it all starts today! All you need to do to prepare is watch the movie again (or watch it with us, scene by scene!)…

Scene by Scene can be found on all major podcast platforms and distributors. To listen, visit SceneByScenePodcast.com or your favorite pod-catcher. The Scene by Scene website also features examples of our illustrations, comics samples from American Splendor and other places, process drawings, and a store.

So click here and join us as our story begins on Halloween evening in the year 1950…

Harvey Pekar’s artists

Geek, Plug

I’ve been thinking about Harvey Pekar a lot recently; more details to follow. But in the meantime, I revived and updated a “coping mechanism” project I first created years ago: a comprehensive listing of all the artists Harvey worked with over the years, from his first published piece in 1974 up through his death (and beyond). You can find it here.

Harvey Pekar & JT Waldman's NOT THE ISRAEL MY PARENTS PROMISED ME

Plug, Tribute

The late great Harvey Pekar left behind an amazing legacy of work. He had so many books in the pipeline when he passed away in July 2010 that there are still new books coming out today (including the wonderful Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, illustrated by Joseph Remnant). Another new book of Harvey’s, illustrated by JT Waldman, was sent to me in galley form by his publisher, who asked for a blurb. I was happy to oblige, and here it is:

Not The Israel My Parents Promised Me is a fascinating history of the so-called Promised Land—as seen through the eyes of an estranged Jew from Cleveland. Brimming with classic Pekar asides and details, the book sheds light on a subject usually obscured by heat. JT Waldman’s evocative artwork combines down-to-earth American Splendor-style illustrations with motifs inspired by everything from mythology to Islamic Art to illuminated manuscripts to Chagall. In cleverly reminding us of its collaborative nature, the book evokes the uneasy conversations Jews often have amongst themselves about Israel. Personally, I never got to say goodbye to Harvey, a man I had known and worked with for over fifteen years. Reading this book was like having a final, wide-ranging conversation with him.

Seth Kushner's HARVEY PEKAR Tribute

Comics, Publicity, Tribute

Today is the one-year anniversary of Harvey Pekar‘s death. One of the more extraordinary homages appearing today is Seth Kushner’s photo comic, "Harvey Pekar: Tribute to ‘Our Man.’" (It’s #25 of Seth’s CulturePop series on ACT-I-VATE.) Weaving wonderful photos of Harvey with Pekar’s own words, it takes the reader through his remarkable life and career. People like Harvey’s wife Joyce Brabner, the filmmakers behind the American Splendor movie, and collaborators like Dean ( ) Haspiel, Jeff () Newelt, and Joseph Remnant make appearances as well. (Oh, and I’m in there too.) It’s memoir, it’s photography, it’s comics — it’s Seth’s unique form of creative expression. Please check it out: http://act-i-vate.com/104-25-1.comic.

P.S. Another nice tribute is KCRW’s re-broadcast of a 2003 conversation between Harvey and Elvis Mitchell: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tt/tt030813harvey_pekar

Harvey Pekar, 1939–2010

Tribute

I was stunned today to hear that Harvey Pekar died. Though I hadn’t worked with Harvey in a couple of years, my history with him goes back to 1994. That was when I wrote him out of the blue, sending him samples of my work and "demanding" he give me a chance to illustrate one of his stories in American Splendor. I was shocked a couple of weeks later when he called me up — and agreed to give me a story to draw! That first one-pager started a 15+-year relationship that gave me much more than just some publication credits.

Besides the many stories of his I worked on, I got the opportunity to really know Harvey and his wife Joyce and foster daughter Danielle. I guess I can’t say he was a friend, per se, but he was much, much more than just a collaborator. That was the thing about Harvey: there was no distinction between his comics and his life. So just as I got to contribute to his incredible, unprecedented undertaking of documenting a life in comics, I got to be part of that actual life. Whether it was random phone calls to ask me what I thought of a new artist he was working with, or the many times I saw him when he came to New York, or the time he wrote me as a character into one of the stories we worked on, I felt honored to be folded into the world of Harvey Pekar and American Splendor.

Most of all, Harvey was a model for me as a comics creator. Through reading his work and working with him, I learned to appreciate the strangeness of real life and the little details of daily existence. As a writer, his unflinching honesty and refusal to engage in sentimentality are qualities which I continue to try to emulate. Obviously, my own attempts at autobiography (which pale next to his best work) were directly influenced by my association with Harvey. And just as Harvey branched out from autobiography to biography and to history, my path in nonfiction comics has led me to "comics journalism."

Above all, I will miss Harvey the man. His intensity and insight made every conversation with him an adventure. Beneath his curmudgeonly exterior was a loyal, supportive, and approachable human being — the same guy who started self-publishing his stories back in 1976 because he had something to say, and found a unique way to say it.

I can’t believe that this distinctive spirit no longer inhabits the planet.

PopCultureShock gives the new "American Splendor" an A+

Uncategorized

Ernie Estrella of PopCultureShock crafts a poetic review of the new issue of American Splendor “Season Two” (Vertigo). This issue (#3)—and the previous one—feature stories illustrated by both me and

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, as well as many other cool contributors, such as Darwyn Cooke, Rick Geary, Chris Samnee, Warren Pleece, and John Cebollero (with a beautiful cover by Cooke). I really think with this “Season Two” of AS, Pekar is back in top form. And so does Ernie:

Reading American Splendor is always a refreshing visit back home for me, a native-Clevelander and now a resident San Diegan. The blue collar ideals. The working man’s mentality. The dreary outlook. I think when you grow up in that town you make no apologies for being a realist, a pessimist, or a skeptic. It’s the lack of sunshine that Clevelanders see on a day-to-day basis that makes you all piss and vinegar. With all of the sun I get now, I’m just not used to it, I’m homesick at times, and American Splendor grays up my day up just fine. From the black and white (and inkwashed) art, to Pekar’s groucho demeanor, there’s enough in here to get you down and kicking the dirt. It’s warranted given our world and live in general and this issue how well-versed and well-read Pekar is. From politics, global warming [Josh], the history of Russian and Jewish immigrants in Cleveland to avant-garde jazz [Dean], there’s a lot on his mind. The hours spent in Zubal’s bookstore tailor a well-read man. Whether you’re from Cleveland or not, you personally care about these observations or not, you’re still drawn to what HE thinks about them. Why? He captures everything that’s beautiful and equally ugly about living today in a few panels with his honest and blunt words–and that’s as American as you can get.

Pekar bible sheet?

Comics

pekar compromise This week I’m working on a Harvey Pekar story for the next American Splendor mini-series from Vertigo. It’s a cute piece, and is the sequel to the one I did with him in last year’s Another Day TPB. And I actually appear in the story as a character, which is humorous (and fun to draw).

This story (like many of Harvey’s pieces nowadays) is mostly set in and around his house, and one challenge I’ve come across is drawing Harvey’s abode. Even though I’ve been working with Harvey for almost fifteen years (!), and I’ve met him plenty of times in person, and hung out with him at conventions, book releases, and movie premieres, I’ve never been to his house. So whenever I draw it, I basically just make it up.

Way back, when I did my very first Splendor story, I got Harvey to send me reference photos of one of the other characters in the piece. But as the years went by, I just began winging it, or swiping characters and interiors from previous issues of American Splendor. The only “reference” I use now are some shots of Harvey I cobbled together from the Internet, the work of other artists, or — horrors! — popping in the DVD of the film and using that. And even though I’ve drawn many stories set in his house, I tend to be dissatisfied with what I’ve done before and usually do something different each time. In essence, every time I draw a new A.S. story, Harvey’s pad undergoes an extreme makeover (sans Ty Pennington)! The only consistencies are the books, magazines, and newspapers piled everywhere, and the general air of post-bohemian shabbiness.

So this got me thinking what a great idea it would be for someone to create an American Splendor “bible sheet” — basically a packet of reference photos for artists to use. You know, like what DC might provide if you were drawing a Batman story and needed to get the details of Wayne Mansion and the Batcave just right. All a Splendor bible would need are some up-to-date shots of Harvey, his wife Joyce Brabner, their foster daughter Danielle Batone, and some interior and exterior shots of his house. Their car, would be nice too, as it seems like the make and model change with each artist who tackles it. Now that Vertigo is publishing A.S., this seems like something I could bring up with the editors.

‘Course, what makes drawing American Splendor so much fun, and so liberating for me, is the freedom I’m given to add my own perspective, my interpretation of the “facts” of the story. But I think a little more foundation for my improv would only help in the end.

P.S. I recently updated my exhaustive list of Pekar contributors, which is part of the “And…” section of my website: http://joshcomix.home.mindspring.com/and/pekar_artists/

Josh Neufeld Comix and Stories

Website of the Brooklyn-based nonfiction cartoonist/journalist

harvey pekar