I only just found out that Harvey Pekar is dead. The cause of death is unknown, but apparently he was still suffering from cancer at the time. He was 70 years old.
That's such a shame. If you haven't had the opportunity to read any of his comics, or watched the film, go ahead, they're both great. Probably the best comic book film ever.
>>3032 That's sad news, I've read a few of the early comics and all the Robert Crumb illustrated ones. After someone posted the documentary Crumb in here I bought American Splendor the film and its fascinating how this curmudgeonly grump man who really led a a fairly ordinary life got it all documented in comic form.
Yeah, it seems the Crumb comics have got a lot of exposure.
It's quite impressive now I think about it, there must have been forty... fifty years worth of this mans life documented in comic book form. Well over half of his lifespan. I bet if you took the time to read through the whole thing it would be absolutely fascinating.
I watched the film last night and i loved it.
I might have to pick up the comic paperback or whatever its called, where all the comics are in one book.
I saw the American Splendor film a while back on FilmFour and enjoyed it.
Ive just read a few American Splendors now after seeing this thread. They are great. Im gonna try and read the rest and maybe look into some Robert Crumb stuff also. Could anyone recommend a good place to start with Crumb? Or any similar people to check out? Saw the Fritz the Cat film and wasn't greatly impressed. Oh and I Read Ghost World and enjoyed that, but found it very depressing.
I dont really think of myself as "into" comics, I have a mate who really digs Judge Dredd and all of that obscenely muscled superhero shit, which has kind of put me off comics, but after reading a little about Crumb and Pekar I can see there is stuff that I would dig.
There's a series of collections of Crumb's work that's been published lately, that's probably the best place to start. Crumb mainly did short stories so there's not really one seminal book that anyone could point to and tell you to read.
I always thought it was a toss up between Maus or Violent Cases as the best comics to read if you're not interested in comics; but there's a ton of decent stuff out there, anything by Alan Moore will be worth your time, and hell, 95% of the stuff posted in /com/ is great.
>>3142 sounds like you'd enjoy Crumb's more autobiographical strips. not sure if there'sbeen a collection of those specifically. his work tends to be scattered all over the place in small zines.