harvey pekar

"A.D." news and not-so-news

A.D., Publicity

The flurry of the holidays (and the desertion of my intern) prevented me from getting much done on the A.D. front in December, but I did manage to complete Chapter 8, which now weighs in at a whopping 20 pp. So if you haven’t yet caught up with A.D. or the two-part “The Bowl Effect” storyline, please check it out now.

And here’s an added incentive: A.D. was nominated as a top comic of the year by both USA Today‘s “Pop Candy” and ComixTalk!

I’m taking a short sabbatical from A.D. to work on a new Harvey Pekar/American Splendor story, but will return to A.D. shortly with Chapter 9. And then there’s more exciting A.D.-related news to follow…

This Thursday @ Broadway branch of the Queens Public Library

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[info]man-size

  and I will be representing American Splendor at the Broadway branch of the QPL this Thursday. Host Michael Sherer will quiz us about working with writer Harvey Pekar on the series, and we’ll discuss the process of illustrating comics from script to finished product. The discussion will be accompanied by slides of comic art in various stages of completion, and a Q & A session will follow. Should be fun!

Thursday, August 24th at 6pm
The Broadway Community Library Auditorium
40-20 Broadway, Long Island City, NY.
[R or V to Steinway. Ride as close to the front of the train as possible. When you exit, just walk up the stairs closest to the front of the train. You’ll be on Steinway about half a block from where it intersects with Broadway. Walk up to Broadway, take a right, and the library is the building next to Rite-Aid.]

The Artists of American Splendor

Comics, Geek, Work

As Harvey Pekar’s unofficial, unauthorized archivist, and in honor of the publication of The Quitter, I’ve updated my list of Pekar’s artists! From R. Crumb to Joe Sacco, “Dino” man_size Haspiel to Gary Dumm, Joe Zabel to Frank Stack, Chester Brown to Jim Woodring — even Joyce Brabner to Alan Moore — this is where you can find which artist drew what story.

The list is organized by artist’s last name and features the title of the piece, where it appeared, and the date it was published. It’s fairly comphrehensive: I own pretty much everything Harvey’s ever published, with the exception of American Splendor #1 (but a lot of the material from that issue ended up in the first AS collection), but if you spot an error or have an addition, please let me know.

Enjoy the arcana: joshcomix.com/and/pekar_artists.

Pekar, Spain, Dino, Josh Hit the Big Apple

Publicity

Look for me at the Big Apple Con on Sunday (Nov. 20). Along with artists Spain Rodriguez and Dean Haspiel, and of course the man himself, Harvey Pekar, I’ll be part of the 3pm panel: Meet the Creators of American Splendor. I swore off mainstream cons years ago, but the’re attempting to expand their base by inviting more indy/underground creators, so… Big Apple Con Comic Book, Art & Toy Show, Fri.–Sun., Penn Plaza Pavilion, 401 Seventh Ave (33rd St.), NYC, $15.

SPX program cover

Illustration, Work

Image hosted by Photobucket.comThrough a series of coincidences, I got invited to draw the cover for this year’s SPX program. Seeing that Harvey Pekar will be a special guest at this year’s show, SPX Executive Director Steve Conley thought a Pekar theme would be appropriate.

I talked it over with Harvey, and he suggested showing himself at the show, with me, man_size, and Ed Piskor, all artists of his who will also be in attendance. Harv is saying, “Wow, after all the great things Dean and Josh have been tellin’ me about this expo, and now I’m here finally — as a guest with his own booth no less.” Pekar also suggested having me, man_size, and Piskor coming up with our own lines of dialogue.

Given Harvey’s line, I felt my obligation as the artist was to:

a.) promote Harvey being at the show
b.) Promote SPX itself

Thus, my sketch showed a line of eager fans in front of Harvey at his booth as he signs copies of his books, DVDs, etc. Behind him we see other exhibitors, fans, cartoonists, etc, in the Versailles Room. Showing the American Splendor artists (me, man_size, & Piskor) didn’t seem as important, and took away from the other two important elements above.

So I decided to render us artists as bobble-head dolls! man_size is perched on a pile of The Quitter, the new book he’s got coming out this fall, Piskor is on a pile of Macedonias, the book he’s working on, and my bobblehead doll is situated in front of the Best of American Splendor book, which features a number of pieces with my art. I think it’s a funny conceit, and a sly allusion to the Harvey Pekar bobblehead dolls which were part of the promotion of the American Splendor movie. (I own one myself.)

I left space for each of us bobbleheads to have a line of thought- balloon dialogue, but personally I thought that took away from the concept. Having the dolls talking was just a little too symbolic and surreal. After talking it over with Steve and man_size we decided to keep the bobbleheads mum, so I was happy to scrap that. Neither man_size nor Ed had come up with lines of dialogue anyway!

So there you have it. I finished drawing the actual cover yesterday and am coloring it today. There are a lot of people in the background scenes — see if you recognize any familiar faces.

click here to see the final uncolored art

Signing, Splendor, and Write-Ups

Publicity

Happy New Year! I’m starting things off with a signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe today, from 5–7 pm. Come on by and pick up a signed copy of A Few Perfect Hours. (Jim Hanley’s Universe, 4 West 33rd Street, NYC, 212.268.7088) There you can also purchase the brand-new Harvey Pekar anthology, American Splendor: Our Movie Year, which features a couple of stories drawn by yours truly. Finally, the Hours reviews keep piling up. New ones include Comicon.com, Comic Book Galaxy, The Orlando City Beat, and The Austin Chronicle.

A Trip Down the Red Carpet

Comics

man_size and I (and our dates) went to the American Splendor NYC premiere on Wednesday night (August 12) and I had the time of my life. It was my second time seeing the film and I enjoyed it just as much this go-around. Dean and his girlfriend — a film editor — are old hands at movie premieres, but I ate it all up. The red carpet, the limos, the star treatment for Harvey & Joyce — it was exciting, thrilling and bizarre, all at once. I finally met Toby Radloff — someone I’ve drawn a number of times in the comic — in person, and he was just as strange as I’ve always imagined. I also met Judah Friedlander, the guy who plays Toby in the film, which was surreal.

The after-movie dinner was held in a giant studio in Chelsea, filled with kitschy set pieces from the movie: old 70s furniture, jazz records, cheesy diner tables, the works. To top it off, they served all manner of white trash junk food, from White Castle hamburgers to orange soda (Harvey’s favorite?). Totally ridiculous, but all in the service of the film, I guess.

Anyway, It was nice to catch up with Harvey, who I hadn’t seen in person in quite a while. He seemed dazed but unchanged by all the hype — the same old uncompromising, grouchy, needy, intense oddball. At the end of the evening, Dean & I found him slumped on a couch at the very darkest corner of the hall, zoned out and exhausted. I also gave a copy of The Vagabonds to Sean Astin (Sam from Lord of the Rings) who asked me to sign it for him and seemed genuinely thrilled to be getting a free comic book. Plus, I got lots of free trailer park grub and a pocket-full of jellybeans to take home with me. All in all, an evening of splendor in America.

American Splendor: the Movie premieres this week

Plug

I was fortunate enough to see an advance screening a few months back and I heartily recommend this film to anyone and everyone, whether you’re a fan of the comic or not.

Those of you expecting another Crumb are going to be pleasantly surprised. While Crumb was in many ways a traditional documentary highlighting the bizarre qualities of R. Crumb and his family, American Splendor is an innovative, exciting mixture of documentary, docudrama and animation that really “makes you think.” It uses the motif of writer Harvey Pekar’s autobiographical comics to explore issues of persona and identity, while simultaneously detailing the dramas of an “average Joe.”

Pekar, who has worked with R. Crumb and other alternative comics legends, is a fascinating grump, an auto-didact, a man who has made very few compromises — for better or worse. The performances — especially by Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis (as Pekar and wife Joyce Brabner) — are flawless, and the merging of documentary and dramatic retelling is inspired. As a frequent collaborator with Harvey on American Splendor, I admit to some bias, but I have no hesitation at all in recommending this brilliant film. See American Splendor! (Also, check out HarveyPekar.com, which features ongoing blogs by Harvey, Joyce and their foster daughter Danielle, as well art by Dean Haspiel.)