RIP: Harvey Pekar

According to the The Cleveland Plain Dealer (published July 12, 2010):

Harvey Pekar’s life was not an open book. It was an open comic book.

Pekar chronicled his life and times in the acclaimed autobiographical comic-book series, “American Splendor,” portraying himself as a rumpled, depressed, obsessive-compulsive “flunky file clerk” engaged in a constant battle with loneliness and anxiety.

Pekar, 70, was found dead shortly before 1 a.m. today by his wife, Joyce Brabner, in their Cleveland Heights home, said Powell Caesar, spokesman for Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death. Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner, wrote “Our Cancer Year,” a book-length comic, after Pekar was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1990 and underwent a grueling treatment.

Read the full article here

We highly suggest reading Pekar’s 1986 masterpiece American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar and/or watching the 2003 movie of the same name starring Paul Giamatti.

Watch some of Pekar’s infamous appearances on Letterman here, here and here