Product Description

Gathered here are the collected works of the titans of adults comics legendary underground cartoonist R. Crumb and the "high priest of comic-book naturalism" (Newsweek) Harvey Pekar. The comic collision of these underground luminaries is funny, obsessive, ever-so-slightly neurotic, but always biting and honest.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #387527 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 86 pages

Customer Reviews

Read Dubliners, and this.
This is wonderstuff. Now that Harvey Pekar's American Splendour has been seen in the cinema in the UK, I would imagine a lot of people who had no idea who he is will pick up this book. The fact that this is Harvey, as Crumb sees him, is, of course, an added bonus. Throw in the joke on the cover, where Crumb gets to drool over the unatainable woman of his inky fantasies (even though his women don't figure in these stories), and it's a classic. This book also contains Harvey's first tentative steps from obssesive jazz LP collector to the James Joyce of comic writing.

Definitive Pekar book
I have to completely disagree with the person who gave this book one star out on five. Crumb did not grudgingly illustrate these stories (let's not forget that it was Crumb who originally asked if he could illustrate a Pekar story) and Crumb's little digs in the book to suggest otherwise are obviously friendly jokes. As a writer, Pekar is a lot more consistently good than Crumb who, although his drawings are always of a mind-blowing standard, can be a little hit or miss in terms of written content, particularly at this period of his working life. What's more, Pekar's work never looks better than when it is illustrated by Crumb which is part of the reason why I'd go as far to say this is the best Harvey Pekar book you can buy. His stories, if you're unfamiliar with them, are gentle observations - but bitingly acute and witty, not to mention strangely uplifting - of his personal and working life and the ones in this book are amongst the best he's written. This is an excellent book, a must for any Harvey Pekar fan, a perfect starting place for anyone new to Pekar's work, and should be of interest to R. crumb fans - as it includes some of his most deftly executed and sharpest graphics from his post 60s work.

I'm a Big Crumb Fan, but wound up returning this
Even though this book is loaded with Crumb art, it is very obvious that R. Crumb was arm-twisted into doing this book, and he even admits this several times throughout it. Forgive me but, this book was flat-out awful. It's all about Harvey Pekar - who is every bit as self-obsessed as Crumb but with none of his friend's redeeming neurotic quirky charm. His writing is depressing and oppressive without substantive relief of any kind. Even Crumb's drawings can't save it. For the obsessive collector only, I would not recommend it to the average R. Crumb fan.