Harvey Pekar...

you can do the math there, i think.

I know those quotes are there for a reason, but there's really no reason to be coy, Jess. Unless the argument you're making is that Crumb is the talent and Pekar is totally full of shit, in which case you're wrong.

oh yeah, the movie - gorgeous & great & ch4rlott3 & I chittered about it for ages (+ she bought up that whole "this record collecting shit is driving me insane, it's like being a junkie or something!!" bit in relation to YOU, duane, like you'd used it as a cover for a zine/album/mag/etc, I forget).

I'm seeing this movie this weekend, I think.

The thing that I started dwelling on was 80s America co-opting outsiders and 'losers' as a jokey way to entertain their 'cool' audience. Culminating in him publicly shitting over the whole cosy arrangement in the final Letterman appearance. But not like it was a big political statement really, just like it was him having a bad day and deciding fuck it. All tied in with the way Toby lapped it up and still wore his 'GENUINE KILLER NERD' badge proudly. I suppose the film is like the real, un-Hollywood Revenge Of The Nerds, the important thing being that there is no worm-turning revenge really.

And I loved the way he came to be a father after all.

I met Pekar way back in 1988 working at the comic convention in Ohio with some friends. A few months later we saw him again in Chicago and we went and got a hotdog with him. He was a really nice guy.

I haven't seen the movie.

ahem. it's not that difficult. cleveland can be the land of milk and honey if you like cheap, interesting apartments, strange old bridges, family-run bars with screen doors, and a sense of aggressive melancholy.

That said, I never would have "discovered" American Splendor if it weren't for seeing Crumb artwork on the cover of an issue and picking it up for my dad.

Lost and Found, Lost and Found.

The art in "Our Cancer Year" was pretty bad, too, and I found all his wife's activism kind of dull and incongruous with the storyline. I do like when he includes other people's stories. All the stuff with Toby is great. I like when Harvey picks up funny anecdotes from others, like the one about the LA art scene. "Don't Kiss the Mermaid!" Other autobiographical comics (ie Jeffrey Brown) could stand to do this more often. It makes the comic seem more like a slice of life thing that happens to feature Harvey, rather than "Hey, it's me, Harvey! I have no ideas so I'll write about how depressed I am!" (Crumb has definitely reached this point.) I'd much rather *listen* to him than a lot of other autobio comics writers, and I guess that makes the difference.

I liked the movie. They did a good job of casting everyone except Crumb.

i've never quite understood why ppl think harvey pekar is a genius (i'm with jess on the non-crumb stuff), but i haven't seen this film yet, so it might change my mind.

I liked the movie. They did a good job of casting everyone except Crumb.

― Abbott (Abbott), Monday, November 28, 2005 1:05 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark

off the money!!!! the guy who played Crumb was AWESOME, he got his creepy lil laugh down perfectly

Plus, he's Doctor Venture! I could never hate Doc.

Whoa, that is a crazy piece of trivia!

Letterman's official YouTube channel has uploaded Pekar's legendary confrontational interview with Letterman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvcw04jWgiY

Thanks---I saw all of Harvey's guest shots on Letterman as they happened, like when he and Dave went upstairs and accosted TV news talent etc. (Harvey: "Hey man, I know you! You used to be on such and such a station in Ohio!") On this last night, I saw Letterman being more uptight than hip, and def a babysitter for us all (he later whined about "making shows for prisoners and students.")
Never saw the movie, but still got the comics somewhere, and always thought they worked on his terms, with no posturing, and regardless of the artist.
If you can ever catch him and CLE buddies on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, you'll be lucky---I've only found excerpts, and here's another from AB's ancient Tumblr:

Here’s a joint comic I did with Harvey Pekar and his artist Gary Dumm that accompanied the NoRes Cleveland show in 2007. Harvey did his version of the experience and Gary and I did mine. View the rest of the comic here.

Vague recollection of that...quite compelling. Is that 100% for real, or is there an Andy Kaufman element of performance there?

The film American Splendor covers this too, but it's 100% real - Pekar was sick of being on the show and decided to antagonize Letterman.

FWIW, Letterman's producer once discussed Glover's famous first appearance when he caused Letterman to walk out after kicking the air inches from his face. During the commercial break, as Glover was forced off the stage, he kept saying something like "It's a bit like Andy Kaufman!" and the producer responded with "you schmuck, everything we do with Kaufman we work out weeks in advance!"

I don’t know if Harvey was capable of being anything but 100% real.

It did feel completely on the level, I was just wondering. Letterman seems quite thrown--he's funny at first ("Savor this appearance, Harvey"), but as it progresses, a couple of his comebacks are really awkward.

FWIW, if you watch American Splendor with the commentary, they explain why that episode is the only one they re-staged. (Everything else used archival clips of the actual broadcast.) They claimed it was unusable, like it was too chaotic or something, but it seems fine to me. Maybe it just didn't play well in the context of their film?

I think around the time of his retirement Dave said he’d mellowed toward Pekar and that he’d give anything to have a guest like that.

His early appearances are so good.

Dave was wanting Harvey as a character, like Larry Bud Melman.

Harvey wanted to publicize his work to help with sales and came to resent being expected to play the part of the rube. When he started really pushing back it quickly became too serious for Letterman.

Yeah, I remember Dave expressing regret over the way things ended with Harvey.

Per the spoiler posted in the description of that official YouTube post, Harvey did get invited back, but it was years later when Letterman had moved to CBS with The Late Show. It would be Harvey's last appearance with Letterman, but at least it happened during The Late Show's peak when it was beating The Tonight Show by an enormous margin in the ratings. (After Letterman retired, I watched a lot of his old episodes, and those first two years of The Late Show were pretty amazing, easily and consistently the funniest episodes of The Late Show, though I still prefer his Late Night years which were usually stranger and more brazen.)

Don Giller, the unofficial but still more or less authorized archivist of Letterman's entire career, posted this compilation that includes that final appearance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biOodnioY8c

Ah, should've taken a closer look at that compilation - Harvey also made another appearance on Late Night 4 1/2 years later, so I guess they smoothed things over when Letterman was still at NBC. So basically he made two more appearances despite that blow-up.