When we created the “Harvey Heads” T-shirt drawn from the 120+ portraits that an incredible collection of artists/Harvey enthusiasts made as a surprise for the late Harvey Pekar’s 70th birthday, we knew it was cool, but had no intention for it to be a collector’s item. Now with Harvey’s passing wearing the T-shirt takes on a new meaning (and every time I wear it, it sparks a conversation about Pekar with a stranger; a lovely thing). This weekend Spreadshirt is offering free shipping for its partner shops such as SMITH (on the Pekar shirt, a Six-Word Memoir shirt, or any SMITH apparel), so I thought it would be a good time to let everyone know about the Pekar tee again. It’s wearable tribute to a master storyteller, one we miss an awful lot.

You can order your Pekar tee or hoodie here. For more on the making of the Harvey Heads (spearheaded by Pekar Project editor, Jeff Newelt), and a list of the nine artists who contributed to the T-shirt, read an earlier post. Above: a postcard I received from artist Rick Reilly. Rick’s Pekar tee had just arrived and he was moved to record that moment in the best way he knows how.

Me & Pekar. When you work with him, you wind up in his work. Art by Joseph Remnant.

Maybe it’s because Harvey Pekar was such an everyman, because he wrote about everyday trials and tribulations of everyday people, of himself and the other lives he chronicled in American Splendor and here in The Pekar Project; maybe it’s because of this universal identifiability that a wave of sadness, like a collective family member passed, swept across social and regular media when news spread of Harvey’s death on July 12, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

art by Sean Pryor

A year ago, our own cuddly curmudgeon, Harvey Pekar, joined author / media theorist Doug Rushkoff on his WFMU radio show, The Media Squat, to talk about a pet peev to both authors: the corporate takeover of society. Doug recently wrote LIFE INC: How the World Became A Corporation and How to Take It Back and Harvey legendarily bashed GE on Letterman in the ’80s, so jamming on this was a natural. To create this comic, “Pekar & Rushkoff Kibbitzin’ About How Life Got Incorporated” (part one of a four-part epic collaboration), we treated the transcript of their talk like the first track laid down for a jazz record. Harvey & Doug remixed the script and then artist Sean Pryor brought the dialogue to life. Note the masterful switch in coloring technique whenever the story shifts from the conversation itself to images of subjects being talked about. Sean first collaborated with Harvey on “Gauntet of Rock” a story for Royal Flush Magazine, and has since rocked out three Pekar Project stories, “Searchin’”, “Jungle Music,” and “Two Working Stiffs.” Sean also designed and contributed a Harvey Head to the new Pekar T-shirt.

Coming out in the Summer of 2011, Harvey Pekar’s CLEVELAND will be a 120+ page graphic novel written by Harvey, illustrated by Pekar Project artist Joseph Remnant, and published by independent ZIP Comics. The book covers familiar American Splendor-ous autobiographical territory and weaves in chunks of Cleveland history, including the Indians winning the 1948 World Series, the notorious 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River as well as profiles of cool Clevelanders like Charles Ruthenberg, leader of the city’s Communist party whose ashes were buried in the Kremlin wall and Jane Edna Hunter, a black social worker who formed the Working Girls Association in 1911 and would come up from down South to find apartments for black women. And of course cameos by Pekarverse regulars like Toby the Genuine Nerd. Read the rest of this entry »

Harvey Pekar HATES going to the airport. But he loves kvetching about it! In “Muncie, Indiana,” Joseph Remnant illustrates a classic Pekarian rant, the latest installment of The Pekar Project.

Bourdain & Pekar illustrated by Tara Seibel

In August 2007, Harvey Pekar appeared on the Cleveland episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations show on Travel Channel. Bourdain toured town with the “Poet Laureate of Cleveland” and they, along with Pekar’s pal Toby Radloff the Genuine Nerd, indulged in a decadent Polish feast. Pekar had such fond memories of the experience that he wrote the Pekar Project’s longest comic to date about it, impressionistically illustrated by fellow Clevelander Tara Seibel. Tara previously drew another team-up, a conversation between Pekar and Crumb, as well as strips about sushi, Baby Oscar, potato chips, and Da Vinci. Click for more to see a trailer for the episode including a comic Pekar created just for the show: Read the rest of this entry »

Pekar Photo Comix / Interview from GRAPHIC NYC

Last week, SMITH joined forces with Graphic NYC for PEKAR WEEK celebrating our man Harvey’s comics career and current collaborators on The Pekar Project.  PEKAR WEEK on Graphic NYC was produced by vunderkind photographer Seth Kushner who concocted a snazzy “fumetti” or photo comic (excerpt above) using text from Christopher Irving’s interview and Kushner’s own photos taken at King Con Brooklyn. Throughout the week, Graphic NYC presented some spectacular features (click on images below) including Dean Haspiel’s “Anatomy of an American Splendor Cover” where Dino takes you through the full creation process of the cover for American Splendor: Another Dollar; Rick Parker’s “How to Draw Harvey Pekar” where Rick takes you from bulbous oval to full-on Harvey head in 13 easy steps; “The Pekar Project: Gettin’ the Band Together” featuring Kushner’s patented potent portraiture of each Pekar Project team member, as well as comments on working with Harvey; “Origins of the Harvey Heads” where Kushner asked 12 of the 120+ artists who drew Harvey Heads for our 70th Birthday gallery to comment on doing so; + other great features. Read the rest of this entry »

Rick Parker illustrates the Pekar Project family

This Saturday & Sunday 11/7 & 11/8, Harvey Pekar makes a rare convention appearance, at KING CON BROOKLYN with the full Pekar Project “band” including artists Tara Seibel, Rick Parker, Sean Pryor, Joseph Remnant. On Saturday, Harvey takes the stage for a discussion with the team. Harvey & the artists will also be doing signings on both days, and the artists will draw FREE Harvey Heads all weekend at the Pekar Project table. Available at King Con will be Royal Flush 6 with a story by Harvey & Sean Pryor as well as a new mini-comic by Tara Seibel including solo as well as Pekar Project work. Read the rest of this entry »

From ROYAL FLUSH Book 6

“Let’s send Harvey some metal and punk CDs to review! That’ll get a rise outta him,” schemed Royal Flush Magazine editor-in-chief Josh Bernstein and I, hoping to fulfill the fantasy of Flush illustrator and major Harvey Head (not to be confused with the Harvey Heads) Sean Pryor, who was rearin’ to draw a Pekar story. So Harvey wrote a script about his relationship to rock and as you can see in the comic below, Sean slaughtered it eight ways to Albuquerque. When Harvey got the pencils from Sean, he was so energized by the dynamic draftsmanship we immediately drafted him into the Pekar Project, for which he’s drawn two stories to date, “Searchin’” and “Jungle Music.”

Big thanks to Royal Flush Magazine for providing the Pekar Project with an exclusive online presentation of the full 4-page“Gauntlet of Rock,” comic written by Harvey Pekar & drawn by Sean Pryor. The story appears in glorious full color print in the new Royal Flush Book 6 which is a maximalist melange of rock, art, humor, pop culture & comics and is on sale now. Read the full comic after the break:

Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Malice by Sean Pryor

When people ask me why Harvey Pekar wrote a book about me, my answer depends on my mood that day. If I’m glib, I tell them it’s because “he finally met a Jew with a more negative outlook than his own.” If I’m feeling smarmy, I say “it’s about growing up with a famous dad.” (“Who was your dad?” “Count Chocula.”) And if I’m being pretentious, I explain, “It’s the story of a boy who thought he was better than everyone else—and was.” Should I ever experience a fourth mood, I suppose I’d need a fourth answer—but those three have been adequate for the 3 years since Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story.
Read the rest of this entry »