The Copacetic Comics Company Harvey Pekar

Harvey Pekar

Title	Creator	Publisher	Series	Price
Huntington, West Virginia "On the Fly"	Summer McClinton, Harvey Pekar	Villard	American Splendor	$17.77 ($19.99 list)
Read more and comment...	The first full length work completed since Pekar's death last summer, "On the Fly" is a compendium of "characters" that Pekar came across during his travels on the lecture circuit during his "in demand' status that followed the release of the American Splendor film. Reading this book harkens back to the early days of the American Splendor comics in that it is a collection of disparate works relating Harvey's interactions with the world around him. The difference here is that he focuses more on the lives of others than his own. The tales in this book are divided between two tales of entrepreneurs from his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio and two tales from the neighboring states of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He provides a lengthy look at the lives of a State College couple along with a meandering anecdote filled recounting of numerous encounters in the titular town of Huntington, including those with another couple who own a comic book shop and are making a movie for which they ask Harvey to make a cameo appearance. This collection amply testifies to the fact that Harvey never lost his ability to transform quotidian encounters into revealing studies of human being. On the visual front, the entire book is illustrated by Summer McClinton, an artist with whom we were not previously familiar. Her work here is uneven and amateurish at times, but it has its moments – especially in her chapter headings, where she shows particular strength in creating visually appealing combinations of logo-style lettering and images. All in all she does a more than serviceable job of visually translating the tales that make up this engaging look at the life and times of Harvey Pekar in the 21st century.
American Splendor Presents Bob & Harv's Comics	Harvey Pekar , R. Crumb	Thunder's Mouth Press	American Splendor	$14.44 ($16.00 list)
Read more and comment...	What's new about this one is the price. We are now able to offer this classic 1996 volume that collects the entirety of R. Crumb's contributions to Harvey Pekar's trailblazing comics series at an amazing low price that we hope will be a boon to all of those who are watching their wallet yet have their eyes out for high quality comics. It really doesn't get much better than these titanic team-ups. These are the comics that put American Splendor on the map and transformed Harvey Pekar from just another working schmoe to an icon of the independent artistic spirit that inheres to the American working class. Yowza! Anyone who hasn't managed to get around to reading these yet is in for a real treat, and even those that have may want the chance to savor them yet again (and again, and again...). RECOMMENDED! Preview it, here.
American Splendor: Our Movie Year	Harvey Pekar , Mark Zingarelli, Ed Piskor		American Splendor	$14.40 ($16.95 list)
Read more and comment...	The first original book (as opposed to original comics, later collected in book form) since Our Cancer Year, Our Movie Year is all about exactly what you think: the experiences of Harvey and his wife, Joyce (who together make up the "Our" of the title) before, during and after the making of the American Splendor movie. But there's more: there are a bunch of strips dealing with Harvey's passions: classic jazz & blues, comics & collecting, and Cleveland. As for the artists this time around: there's the usual suspects along with a few new faces. Pittsburgh-based artists have their highest profile ever in a Pekar collection: Pittsburgh transplant, Mark Zingarelli starts the whole thing off with the title track, as it were, and also handed in the art chores on "Blackout," a thirteen-pager on the August 14 blackout. Pittsburgh's own Ed Piskor, a newcomer, closes out the collection with the 24-page (the longest piece in the book!) "Around the World and Back to Earth." Also contributing are long time American Splendor veterans R. Crumb (only two pages, tho'), Gary Dumm (who is the collection's major contributor), Gerry Shamray and Frank Stack. This is a great, well-rounded collection that is sure to be a hit with American Splendor fans, new and die-hard alike.
The Beats: A Graphic History	Harvey Pekar , Ed Piskor	Henry Holt		$20.00 ($22.00 list)
Read more and comment...	by Harvey Pekar & Ed Piskor with Paul Beuhle, Trina Robbins, Peter Kuper, Mary Fleener, Summer McClinton, et al The dynamic duo of historical comics, Harvey Pekar and Ed Piskor, are back with The Beats: A Graphic History. Yes, of course, the unholy trinity of Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg are here, front and center, but this anthological history of the beats ranges far and wide to include the likes of Michael McClure, Robert Duncan, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Charles Olsen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane di Prima, and many others. While the focus is on the 1950s we are taken back to the early days of the principal actors and up to the present with the reverberations of their work, actions and lives. It's hard to overstate the impact that these figures had on American culture. They were the prime movers in consciously breaking out of the conformity that the pressures of the Great Depression and the Second World War placed on Americans, of valuing the rights of the individual over the security of the nation, of the personal over the (re)public, and so inititated the frontline of the biggest battle of the culture wars that continue to rage to this day. Anyone interested in getting an easily assimilable introduction to the major players in this important cultural movement need look no further. The authors neglected to provide any sort of bibliography to help readers move on to the literature itself, so we'll help out by hooking you up with The Beat Page, the best spot on the web from which to start delving into this movement.
Best of American Splendor	Harvey Pekar			$15.25 ($17.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Despite this somewhat misleading title, what we have here is a new collection of American Splendor stories that are all appearing in book form for the first time. Only people who bought the original comic books and magazines that these stories originally appeared in between 1991 and 2004 have seen them before. So, really, this new collection might be more aptly titled, "New American Splendor." This is good news for most Pekar fans, as this means that they have 332 new pages of great comics to look forward to. This is the biggest book yet and includes loads of great stories with art by the like of Joe Sacco, Frank Stack, David Collier, the team of Joe Zabel & Gary Dumm working together and on their own, and many others. This one's a keeper!
Ego & Hubris	Harvey Pekar			$17.95 ($19.95 list)
Read more and comment...	You know how Harvey is. He meets this guy, the guy starts talking, and the next thing you know Harvey's figured out how to turn this guy's story into a nice short comics piece. Well, this time around, the guy Harvey ran into, named Michael Malice, really knew how to talk, but didn't know how to stop. Harvey related one of his stories -- "Fish Story" -- in Our Movie Year, but all the while Michael kept talking, and ended up telling Harvey so much about himself that Harvey -- with the ready, willing and able rendering of longtime collaborator Gary Dumm -- had no choice but to turn his tales into a full-length graphic novel! Here's a synopsis: "Ego & Hubris relates how, a year and a half after his birth in the Ukraine, Michael Malice moved with his parents to Brooklyn. He’s an intransigent kid, a hard-ass–both a demon to and demonized by the people who cross his path. His life is a constant struggle for validation in a world where the machine keeps trying to break him down. But Michael has a way with people . . . or rather, has a way of getting even with people. Hey, if you can’t live up to your parents’ expectations, at least you can live up to your name."
Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History	Harvey Pekar	Hill and Wang		$20.00 ($22.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History by Harvey Pekar and Gary Dumm; edited by Paul Buhle w/ addditional text by SDS members and addtl. art by Josh Brown, James Cennamo, and others. A history lesson, a consciousness-raising session, a political roundtable discussion, an artistic jam-sesion -- in its mulitplicity of perspectives, this comics history provides a well-rounded portrait of its subject. One of the most high-profile, widely-active and important political groups of its time, SDS is almost synonomous with leftist politics in the 1960s. The tale told here is complex, multi-faceted, labyrinthine and fascinating. The fact that Pekar's editor on this volume, Paul Buhle, is a well regarded leftist writer and scholar who was the founding editor of the SDS journal, Radical America, is a big plus in bringing together the former SDSers who tell their personal stories alongside Pekar's history. A walloping 26 bonus tales are presented here in all thier graphic glory, including several each by Pekar and Buhle along with those by lesser known figures such as Mark Naison, Penelope Rosemont and many others. Taken together these multiple points of view weave a comics tapestry of the SDS years. The 212 page volume closes out with brief look at the tentative revival that SDS is currently undergoing, illustrated by none other than Pittsburgh's own Ed Piskor!
Our Cancer Year	Harvey Pekar , Joyce Brabner, Frank Stack	UNDEFINED
Read more and comment...	The title says it all.
American Splendor: Ordinary Life Is Pretty Complex Stuff	Harvey Pekar	Ballantine Books	American Splendor	$17.77 ($20.00 list)
Read more and comment...	Just in time for the movie, the powers that be at Random House have pulled out the plates for the two original classic collections of stories from Harvey's own original magazines, American Splendor and More American Splendor, that last saw the light of day fifteen years ago, and combined them both into one quite affordable 300 page volume. Let us give thanks.... See the movie and then read the real thing.
American Splendor #4	Harvey Pekar	Vertigo	American Splendor	$2.69 ($2.99 list)
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American Splendor #1	Harvey Pekar	Vertigo	American Splendor	$2.69 ($2.99 list)
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American Splendor #1 - 4	Harvey Pekar	Vertigo	American Splendor	$2.69 ($2.99 list)
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Best American Comics 2006	Anne Elizabeth Moore, Harvey Pekar	Houghton Mifflin	Best American	$19.80 ($22.00 list)
Read more and comment...	This surprisingly -- given that it's from Houghton Mifflin, a major NY publisher, whose eyes are usually more closely set on the bottom line -- well produced book contains a good cross-section of work published in North America in 2004 and 2005 and functions as a fine follow-up to both McSweeney's #13 -- which is clearly its inspiration -- and the just-released Brunetti edited anthology reviewed above. This collection spans the generations, including new work from old-timers Kim Deitch, Gilbert Shelton and Robert Crumb, middle-agers Jaime Hernandez, Lynda Barry and Joe Sacco, and youngins' Anders Nilsen, Rebecca Dart and Jesse Reklaw, whose story, "13 Cats of My Childhood," we singled out for praise in our 2005 SPX report, when it appeared in it's original form as Couch Tag #2, stating at the time, "It is one of the best comics at this year's SPX... and deserving of a much wider audience than it will be able to find in this form." So, suffice it to say that we're quite happy to see it included here in this anthology. By far the longest piece included in this 320 page anthology, practically a graphic novella , "La Rubia Loca," by Justin Hall -- another SPX attending self-publisher -- is an engrossing story about a bunch of hippie slackers stuck on a bus tour through Mexico with a crazy woman. And keep in mind that these are just the highlights, there's plenty more.
Macedonia	Ed Piskor, Heather Roberson, Harvey Pekar	Villard		$16.00 ($17.95 list)
Read more and comment...	Given the assignment to pencil and ink indy comics legend, Harvey Pekar's longest and most ambitious work to date (co-scripted by peace activist, Heather Robinson, whose life and work provided the inspiration for the book) Pittsburgh's own Ed Piskor hits it out of the park with this 152 page all new, original graphic novel. There's a lot of history and a lot of story crammed into this book, as Pekar applies his trademarked storytelling abilities to acquaint his readers with the sometimes harsh but always human realities of this conflicted corner of Europe that occupies lands in the former Yugoslavia that border the worn torn regions that have been eloquently explored in the comics of Joe Sacco. Piskor proves himself a stalwart creative partner in Macedonia. His work here carries a lot of information across to the reader and puts us in mind of a more prosaic Chester Brown. History and foreign policy, international affairs and affairs of the heart; all come together in this revealing tale of the global village where we all now live.

Mon - Thu	11 - 5
Fri & Sat	11 - 7
Sun	12 - 4