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In this story, our man Harvey chats with his old pal and collaborator, Robert Crumb, the legendary underground cartoonist who drew some of Harvey's first stories, and whose adaptation of The Book of Genesis comes out this Fall. The conversation was taped, and played on stage during the performance of Leave Me Alone! the "jazz opera" by musician Dan Plonsey for which Harvey wrote the libretto.
posted Monday, August 24th, 2009 leave a comment or trackback
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In this story, our man Harvey chats with his old pal and collaborator, Robert Crumb, the legendary underground cartoonist who drew some of Harvey's first stories, and whose adaptation of The Book of Genesis comes out this Fall. The conversation was taped, and played on stage during the performance of Leave Me Alone! the "jazz opera" by musician Dan Plonsey for which Harvey wrote the libretto.
posted Monday, August 24th, 2009 leave a comment or trackback
link to this page or email a friend
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[...] [Comics] “Pekar & Crumb: Talkin’ ‘Bout Art” Link: Smith Magazine [...]
It seems Crumb and Pekar agree. One sure sign of success is not having to do something you don’t “wanna”. Nice job, Tara! In my mind you are the Matisse of Comic Art!
I’ve always thought of Harvey Pekar’s comix to be like what blogs were intended to be and it’s about time someone hosted his new works online. Congratulations to all involved in THE PEKAR PROJECT!
Illustration looks great! Good to see Harvey on the web!
Pitch-perfect.
Amazerblade. Harvey at his most lucid.
Love Tara’s take on both Pekar and Crumb. This is Pekar gold. Keep it coming.
Very nicely designed and great color co-ordination. Harvey looks super smooth on the last page.
It takes a lot of work to make something look easy. Harvey’s dialogue is always engaing and gives you a lot of stuff to chew on afterwards too. Likewise for R.Crumb’s response.
I like the way the hand of the artist is so prevalent in this piece about the effacy of art. The artwork comments on the content while acting as counterpoint to the “ordinaryiness” of two people on the phone.
I enjoyed the strip!
Excellent work Tara! Your style really goes great with Harvey’s words. Very original and charming look. Looking forward to all of your future strips.
[...] first story is Pekar & Crumb: Talkin’ ’bout Art. It’s drawn by Tara [...]
I love the Pekar/Crumb back-and-fourth dialogue, but its Tara’s almost psychedelic artwork that really sells the piece.
I think this is a really great/free web-comic.The dialogue between Crumb and Pekar is entertaining and relevant.I particulary dig the fresh illustration style by Tara.It’s a great read while I wait for The Best Of American Splendor to come back into circulation at my community college’s library.
[...] Joseph Remnant, Rick Parker, and Sean Pryor. New stories appear every other week, starting right here with the first strip illustrated by Tara Siebel. var addthis_pub = ”; var addthis_language = [...]
Terrific! Harvey’s words and Tara’s style
flowed like magic! I can’t wait to see what’s ahead
with the other artists illustrating the stories
this is crap! dialogue are stupid, drawing are shit…
waste of time!
Absolutely adore this piece. Superb visuals, too.
[...] The Pekar Project — Harvey Pekar ist einer der interessantesten und, spätestens seit dem Film American Splendor, auch hierzulande bekanntesten US-Comic-Autoren. Über längere Zeit arbeitete er mit dem Underground-Genius Robert Crumb zusammen, mit dem ihm auch eine Leidenschaft für alte Schellack-Platten verbindet. Jetzt gibt es wieder eine Kooperation der beiden Comic-Altmeister, wenn auch nur über das Telefon — und gezeichnet nicht von Crumb, sondern, in opulenten Bildern von der Chicagoer Illustratorin Tara Seibel. Das Web-Comic “Pekar & Crumb, talking ’bout art” eröffnet eine Reihe von Pekar-Arbeiten, genannt The Pekar Project, die im SMITHmag erscheinen sollen. Absolut sehenswert! [...]
This isn’t bad… What makes me wonder is that Pekar and Crumb have been saying astute stuff about art and life for years, and making a living (or at least a name), but they seem to be the only ones having these conversations. Yeah, OK, I talk to a few people who are comparably sharp, but does it all just wash off the other readers of Crumb’s and Pekar’s thoughts, or what?
Where the hell is everybody with a brain?
Bengo
LilNyet.com
[...] Pekar, creator of the autobiographical series American Splendor. The first installment features Harvey having a phone conversation about art with Robert Crumb. Harvey Pekar’s been mining the mundane for magic for more than 30 years in [...]
I am always interested in what Pekar has to say. Crumb and Pekar deserve their own sitcom. I am on board people!
[...] “Sólo dicto los tweets por teléfono, estoy muy viejo para aprender esto”, confesó). La primera entrega ya se puede ver y es una conversación entre Harvey y su viejo amigo Crumb acerca del arte y de su [...]
This is funny, because it’s something I’ve always noticed about the avant-garde. Show someone a 90-year old Picasso, but don’t tell them that it’s a 90-year old Picasso, and they’re liable to say, “I don’t like this newfangled art they got nowadays.” Interesting to see Robert Crumb drawn in a non-Crumb style. Tara is certainly easier on Crumb’s physical appearance than Crumb is himself. I like how the conversation ends with the two of them kvetching about phones going dead and driving. From the sublime to the mundane. Such is life.
Brilliant work. I agree with Parker that Tara is the Matisse of Comic Art but since he wasn’t into the comic scene, I’ll label her the French Countess of Comic Art
This is sheer joy. Marvelous stuff.
Ha! This is great!
Очень вам признателен, по-настоящему полезная инфа.
Thank for this
Beautiful colors and formatting to fit very well
Thank you very much but i like informaiton to you.
The best information but i like
I enjoyed reading this but the art is just more tiresome, minimalist, CRAP.
I am sick of artists pretending they’ve reached a plateau and suddenly become bored with techniques that unveil polished, discernable, detailed, remotely interesting work.
Adults consciously shedding dexterity and knowledge to capture the essence of a social scenario isn’t bold. It isn’t “Gonzo”. It’s skilled adults pretending they’re suddenly two and a half feet tall, drooling in a sand box…and it’s obvious. I’d rather take in the scribbling of an actual child. Kids may not inadvertently come up with the profound every time they put crayon to paper but at least their efforts are genuine. When an adult tries unrefined, it’s pretentious…to say the least.
And, it does nothing to establish one’s self. Doodling doesn’t really convince anyone. The loads of folks stinking up the art scene with much of the same will just play along. They’ll say things like “Nice colors!” or “Great color scheme!” but their phoney support isn’t worth a hedgehog turd.
Most of them wish they were talented but a good percentage of them just forgot their talents. They pulverized their potential the moment they became thespians and dove into the mass, clownish pursuit of a supposedly “intellectual”, coffee-addicted, significant other with horn-rimmed glasses, a drawer filled with turtle neck sweaters and a supposed interest in Bob Dylan & Kerouac (they’ve really only read their Wikipedia biographies).
This story, like “Our Cancer Year”, is further proof that Harvey’s work can survive and even thrive despite being draped in poor illustration.
Josh Ryals obviously needs a crutch to support his lack of imagination. The crutch being graphic, detailed illustrations to provide visual understanding for his snail-like brain.
His Ez-cargo membrane requires details of each character such as a 2007 off-white polo from the Macy’s spring catalogue and exact facial expressions to ensure that, yes, this character is smug and wearing polo.
Our NYC urban hero Josh, has read much from The New Yorker and his grandpappy’s Farmers Almanac.
Josh sits quietly in his bedroom with the lights turned out, bangs his head on the wall, angered that the works of Klimt & Schiele are nailed to museum walls across Europe whilst the works of Ryals collect spaghetti sauce on Mums refrigerator.
Josh continues to show his work at Starbucks across the country. GAP jeans contracted him to illustrate their fall collection. GAP requires POLISHED shoes, DISCERNABLE logos, DETAILED stitchwork and REMOTELY INTERESTING…lol, yeah right.
“If you’re going to do something original — pause — you’re going to get it in the neck sooner or later. ––Harvey Pekar
hi, Tara–
I love this story.
My husband Dan Plonsey and I and a whole lot of other fantastic people did this project with Harvey.
Needless to say, we miss Harvey desperately.
Roving around the web, I finally visited the Project– (we had had an idea for a strip which, for all I know, is still on the crumpled napkin in his wallet) but I hadn’t gotten around to pursuing it at all.
In any case, you are beautiful and talented, and I’m wondering how we can get a print of your gorgeous story “Talkin’ about Art”, which utilizes some of the taped conversation from the opera.
Grieving with you in Berkeley,
Mantra, Dan and Mischa and Cleveland (yes, that’s our 13-year-old son’s name!) Plonsey