My first thought this morning upon hearing of the death of author Harvey Pekar was that it's too bad he won't be around to write the comic book about the death of author Harvey Pekar. Harvey was a fascinating guy who wrote fascinating comic books about himself. Here's an obit straight from his home town of Cleveland. In a sense, Cleveland was the supporting character in most of his stories. Harvey, of course, was the star.
I had but one encounter with Harvey Pekar in my life. It was not pleasant but in a way, it was also refreshing because it proved that the crankiness we all saw in his comics, and in appearances like those he made for a time with David Letterman, was not an act. It was just the way the guy was.
It was around 12:45 one afternoon at a comic book convention in Chicago. There was one room in which panels and talks took place and one was in progress. I was waiting in the back of the hall to moderate or maybe just be on the one that would begin at 1:00 and then Harvey was to take stage at 2. At least, that was the schedule. Quarter to one, Harvey showed up and announced — loudly, distracting all who were trying to hear the speakers — that he was ready and he didn't see why he had to wait around 'til 2:00. He wanted just to give his talk and split; never mind that the folks who wanted to hear him wouldn't converge on the room until later. He was also upset because though there was a fine, snack-laden table of refreshments for the guests, there were no donuts on it. It seemed utterly illogical to him that you could put out cookies, crackers, finger sandwiches, veggies, pretzels, chips and nuts…and not have any donuts.
Somehow, we got into an argument which all went in one direction: Harvey Pekar versus The World. Coming from anyone else, it would have been the rantings of a rude, self-obsessed guy who couldn't grasp that everything in life doesn't work the way you want it to work, just because you want it to work that way. Coming from Harvey, it was oddly reassuring and utterly forgiveable. That was just the way he was and he wasn't going to change…so you could be repulsed by it or you could relax and enjoy it. Most readers, I think, confronted his writing with those choices and opted to enjoy.
I'll bet his work remains in print for a long time. And its standout weakness will be that, like I said, he never got to write that last installment.