GenX Comics

American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar

The inspiration for the award-winning movie
from HBO Films and Fine Line Features

AMERICAN SPLENDOR
The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar

Two classic comic anthologies in one volume

Stories by Harvey Pekar

Introduction by R. Crumb

Art by Kevin Brown, Gregory Budgett, Sean Carroll, Sue Cavey, R. Crumb, Gary Dumm, Val Mayerik, and Gerry Shamray

The classic collection of the comics that inspired the movie American Splendor, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival

American Splendor is the world’s first literary comic book. Cleveland native Harvey Pekar is a true American original. A V.A. hospital file clerk and comic book writer, Harvey chronicles the ordinary and mundane in stories both funny and touching. His dead-on eye for the frustrations and minutiae of the workaday world mix in a delicate balance with his insight into personal relationships. Pekar has been compared to Dreiser, Dostoevsky, and Lenny Bruce. But he is truly more than all of them—he is himself.

“Mr. Pekar has . . . proven that comics can address the ambiguities of daily living, that like the finest fiction, they can hold a mirror up to life.”
—The New York Times

“[Pekar] has a vision that makes daily city life—a ride on the bus, a run-in with a boss, or simply buying bread—dramatic.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“Simply stated, American Splendor is the most superb literary endeavor to come off the streets of Cleveland in decades.”
—The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

“Mr. Pekar lets all of life flood into his panels: the humdrum and the heroic, the gritty and the grand.”
—The New York Times Book Review

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars “Who IS Harvey Pekar?”
This collection of Pekar writings from the 1970s and 80s was issued on the heels of the film “American Splendor,” and it collects some of the best of Pekar’s earlier work. Although not exclusively chronological, the presentation of the material gives a good idea of Pekar’s life from his post-high school days through his meeting and marrying Joyce Brabner. (For a strictly chronological memoir, see Pekar’s recent The Quitter.)

In the later Pekar work, the centerpiece of much of it is Pekar’s obsessive-compulsive anxiety. But a lot of this work focuses on what might be described as Pekar’s existential anxiety: his terrible loneliness, his anger and alienation, his dark reflections on the meaning of life, his desire for recognition, his regret over wasted opportunities and adolescent hubris, and his worries about future contingencies (financial security, illness and death, old age). The Pekar who comes through in these pages isn’t the lovable crank of the film. Rather, the person who comes through is the outsider, a self-educated man, extremely knowledgeable in literature and music, who disdains a “normal” lifestyle and seeks freedom through nonconformity. Perhaps the finest single piece Pekar has ever written, “I’ll be Forty-three on Friday (How I’m Living Now)” speaks to all this. The collection’s lead story, “The Harvey Pekar Name Story,” in which Pekar winds up asking “Who IS Harvey Pekar?” is a perfect set-up.

Of course, there are also lighter moments in this collection. Mr. Boats (wonderfully illustrated by R. Crumb) appears here a couple of times, and he’s always good for a bit of gently funny homespun wisdom. “Mrs. Roosevelt and the Young Queen of Greece” and “On the Corner: A Sequel, June 1976″ are touching pieces about the bittersweetness of memory. And the penultimate story in the collection, “Common Sense,” would make even a dyed-in-the-wool misanthrope love humanity.

Highly recommended.

5 Stars Splendin splendour
i m really new into comic art. This fascinated me fully, deeply inside out. its so routine but its so deep - frankly words cant express. its hard to recommend ’cause one needs to understand - i m not sure i could grasp it yesterday but today its one of my favourites!

3 Stars why would I want to enter the mind of a pathetic cynic?

I couldn’t even get through this book. I read half way, and then it hit me like a ton of bricks: “why am I reading this?”. Cause the movie was good? Cause Harvey Pekar ‘revolutionized’ underground comics back in the 70s? Those were the reasons, but the book just adds more questions. Why was the movie good, but the comic pointless? What exactly did this mindless junk do for underground comics?

Harvey Pekar (or his other aliases) is an annoyingly grumpy middle-aged man whose only focus is complaining about the world, or collecting jazz records. There’s nothing philosophical or insightful about collecting jazz records. Not even if you explore the subject in every other strip (as this collection so aptly does). This is a bitter man who you’d never want as a friend. And if you did, he’d think you were too stupid to want him as a friend. I honestly can’t relate to his pessimistic version of “real life”.

One thing I do have to give Pekar props for is putting his life out there like this. He was showing the world who he was unabashedly, and for that I respect him. I just don’t like him. He’s a jerk.

writing: [5.5/10]

art: [8/10]

5 Stars very good comic
I wasn’t sure which one of the american spledor comics to buy; this one is a good place to start. i’m very happy with the read.

5 Stars Beats Hollywood
I purchased this book because i liked the movie so much. i chose THIS book because it looked like the best value for money offer avaiable and i wasn’t wrong.

this for sure ain’t an easy read and it takes some time to work your way through all the stories. but i think it is worth it. This is a great book and even if the crumbdrawn stories stand out on first sight i found the other artists as interesting on second sight.

One thing that occurd to me is how much more complex and interesting and deep the original stories are in comparison to the abovementioned movie. this is a good example to study how they they flatten and manipulate the real life and the real world to squeeze it in a screensized format.

So, this is a very cheap book with great art in it and i recommend it to everyone who seeks for true stuff produced by people stubborn enough to produce it.

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Coraline: The Graphic Novel

Coraline discovered the door a little after they moved into the house.

When Coraline steps through a door in her family’s new house, she finds another house strangely similar to her own (only better). But there’s another mother there and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

Acclaimed artist P. Craig Russell brings Neil Gaiman’s enchanting, nationally bestselling children’s book Coraline to new life in this gorgeously illustrated graphic novel adaptation.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars disturbing drawings
Coraline as a graphic novel is even scarier that the written version! I’m doing a project with my 14 year old students in Spain, reading the graphic novel in English and the book both in Catalan and Spanish, and the general opinion is that the drawings are very disturbing… but they really love them!if you have time, have a look at what they think about the characters in our blog:

[...]

4 Stars creepy, but good. just don’t read it in the dark.
let me first state that i have not read the book version of this, so i have no means for comparison. i picked this up at the library as my first graphic novel ever, so i also have no sense of expertise on graphic novels or their quality/merit. so, that out of the way, i really enjoyed Coraline, although i think i would have enjoyed it even more if it hadn’t been dark outside when i read it. it was just a tad on the creepy side, which was definitely not what i was expecting from my first graphic novel. yeah, i’m a wuss.

the story naturally centers on a little girl named Coraline, whose family has just moved into a large estate that is shared by a couple of elderly ladies and their dogs, and an old man and his mice. they are all quirky and fun and keep Coraline occupied when she isn’t off exploring the land surrounding the property, as a latchkey kid of sorts. we jump right into the creepiness when Coraline finds a locked door that occasionally opens to another portion of the house, which brings her into an alternate version of her life, with zombie-like versions of everyone else.

my favorite part of this, being that it was my first graphic novel, was the art. i found myself lingering on the images, studying them, even when there was no text. there was an unbelievable amount of detail to the drawings, at times, that was really impressive. it could just be my lack of familiarity with graphic novels, but there was so much to take in that it was sometimes overwhelming.

the storyline itself was very simple and clearly written, which was pretty impressive considering how few words are really in the book. the characters could have been better developed, but i did appreciate how clever Coraline was when it became apparent that she might be stuck in her alternate life forever. as a pseudo coming-of-age book, and a definite nightmare inducing children’s book, this was a good choice and i’m glad i picked it up.

as my first graphic novel, i was very happy. it was simple and beautifully executed and has definitely opened me up to the potential of having the graphic novel make a more regular appearance on my bookshelf. and for that, i’m very thankful!

1 Stars A pitiful shadow of a great book
AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! The original Coraline book with illustrations from Dave McKean is amazing and wonderful. This graphic novel sucks all joy and inspiration from the original. McKean was able to say everything in a handful of illustrations and not only does P. Craig Russell not add a single thing to the story he actually takes away the imagination and visual playfulness. Buy the original book by Neil Gaiman with illustrations by Dave McKean.

5 Stars Coraline is great!
My little girl fell in love with the movie and when I saw this I had to pick it up for her. She loves this graphic novel and I would recommend for any Coraline fan

2 Stars I thought I was getting a book
I didnt realize this was a graphic novel when i ordered it, so I was incredibly disappointed that I didnt get the book that I have been so excited to read. If you like graphic novels, then go for it. If you are looking for the book, be careful, this isnt it!

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Y: The Last Man, Vol. 4: Safeword

Guided by the outstanding writing talents of Brian K. Vaughan (Swamp Thing, Ultimate X-Men) and rising star artist Pia Guerra, this acclaimed, genre-busting and controversial series continues apace! After a devastating plague, Yorrick Brown is the last man left alive in a world of women. On the run from Amazon extremists who would be happy to see him dead, his friends leave him in the care of Agent 711. But 711 is not the tragic woman she seems to be and Yorrick is propelled into a drug-fuelled nightmare of blood and sadism. Stretching the graphic novel envelope again, the fourth volume in the series shows why this title continues to be held in such high regard.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars One of the greatest stories in comics
I was turned on to Y The Last Man at work when I saw someone with the comic. I asked him what it was about and he told me. Being a fan of post-apocolyptica, I asked if it was any good. He looked straight into my eyes and said, “I don’t read crap, man.” If you looked at the guy, a stereotypical comic book/gaming nerd, you could tell he knew his stuff.

I went home and bought all the available graphic novels, 6 at the time. I have no regrets. I have since lent these novels to about a dozen people and they all loved it.

This comic perfectly blends action, comedy, sci-fi, romance, and drama together to create a world where women rule.

4 Stars Tiny step down but still better than almost everything else!!
I have adored the first three of these volumes. This trade is a tiny bit of a step down because of the hyper-sexual overtones that seemed odd in their placement. Not that they were in the book just when, where, and more importantly, why. I did love the look back to more of Yorick’s reaction to the plague. The overall story is pushing west and I’m loving it!!

5 Stars Review of Vaughn’s Y: Volume 4
Wow. This volume represents a significant shift in content from the earlier works. Themes of man’s sexual experience with the world are expressed in ways unconsidered by the earlier comics. The general comedy and action continue.

5 Stars Must be great being the last man…
As Y: The Last Man keeps dropping bombshell after bombshell and everytime I am loving it. What a great graphic novel. I wish I had more cash because I would love to get all them. Graphic novels work the same kind of way when you have never seen a t.v. series. You pick up season one and you are able to get watch a large chunk and get that instant gratification. Graphic novels work the say way vs. getting them in comic book form.

5 Stars Water Torture or Dunking Booth - It depends on who you ask.
Yorick has been lucky and that luck - not to mention a certain agent and even Dr. Mann - have managed to keep him alive. Still, yorick cannot survive on luck alone and his keeper knows that. so, instead of hoping that yorick manages to keep his nose clean, she’s come up with a plan that involves many things - and one of them is toughening up yorick and making him understand the world. The only question is Yorick’s ability to live through the process.

When I first started Y, i thought that it would only last alittle while. Happily, I can say that the book has not taken a wrong turn, has not made yorick’s life any easier, and has not gotten soft as it has gone along. No, it has every country that could want a man after him, his own sister hoping for his head on a pike, and even his companions doubting his abilities. so much for being the “last man.”

As far as writing goes, the book has everything. The turns will keep you holding on for dear life, the twists will make you ponder what will happen next, and the characters will make you feel for their plights. I really did not think that any of these things would happen in this book, but I especially did not expect the last part to happen. Still, as things go along, you become attached to everyone - even Yorick’s pet male monkey.

How strange life is.

If you have yet to plug into this story, you can either go to the books (which contain more than one volume) or you can go by volume. either way, you will become addicted and that is a good thing. The story will surprise you, that’s for sure, and you will be happy that you’ve kept up with things because the way Yorick’s life turns out is not the only factor in the book. There are lots of other things, namely a world without males, and that is interesting to see as it is shaped.

Enjoyable enough to keep going for at least 10 volumes.

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Witch & Wizard: Battle for Shadowland

In a blink of an eye, their world has changed, with the oppressive New Order declaring all magic as evil incarnate! In this action-packed tale spinning out of best-selling author James Patterson’s #1 novel, sibling teenagers Whit and Wisty Allgood use their newly discovered magical powers to infiltrate into enemy territory of the New Order to gain control of the inter-dimensional Shadowland.

The first of two original stories this volume takes place between books one and two of the prose novels. Witch & Wizard: Battle for Shadowland takes best-selling author James Pattersons hit characters from the Witch & Wizard novel on all-new exciting adventures in this four-color graphic novel.

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Bleach, Vol. 31 (Bleach (Graphic Novels))

R to L (Japanese Style). Cleaning up the afterlife ? one spirit at a time!

Ichigo Kurosaki never asked for the ability to see ghosts–he was born with the gift. When his family is attacked by a Hollow–a malevolent lost soul–Ichigo becomes a Soul Reaper, dedicating his life to protecting the innocent and helping the tortured spirits themselves find peace. Find out why Tite Kubo’s Bleach has become an international manga smash-hit!

Don’t Kill My Volupture: Ichigo and the rest of the rescue squad have made it as far as the fortress of Las Noches and are one step closer to freeing Orihime from the Arrancars’ clutches. And although the battles in Hueco Mundo have been brutal, the opponents have been surprisingly honorable. But that is about to change…

User Ratings and Reviews

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