Harvey Pekar is a pain in the ass. This is a compliment: As a noted jazz
critic, Pekar actually discusses music when writing. I admire that. When
he calls however, I confess I sometimes shirk editorial duty and avoid
answering the phone, not because he is difficult but because Pekar always
has something to say and I want to put everything else aside and listen.
Pekar has spent a good part of his life sharing his curmudgeonly, neurotic
point of view with the world. In American Splendor, famed comix artist
Robert Crumb deftly illustrates Pekar’s fan obsession with collecting jazz
records. A longtime contributor to the Chronicle and a 1987 American
Book Award winner, Pekar developed cancer a few years ago, and harrowingly
detailed it in Our Cancer Year, written by Pekar and wife Joyce Brabner.
Pekar also works as a file clerk at the Veterans Hospital in Cleveland and
continues to write jazz criticism. “I’m strong for the veterans!” he declares
in his flat Ohio accent.
Harvey Pekar will be in Austin at Book People on Friday October 25 at 6pm to
talk about and sign copies of Bob & Harv’s Comics: Stories by Harvey
Pekar, Art by R. Crumb, the newly released collec-tion of their
collaboration. — Margaret Moser
This article appears in October 25 • 1996 and October 25 • 1996 (Cover).