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Ken Mills
Добавлен 20 сен 2006
Harvey Pekar on His Career and Comics.mov
Harvey Pekar died July 12, and America lost a unique creative voice. His specialty was non-fiction comic books, and he was best known for his autobiographical series, "American Splendor," which was made into an award-winning film in 2003. Its tagline was "Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff." In 2008 Mills James Productions interviewed Pekar for a documentary called "The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, BONE and the Changing Face of Comics" (www.thecartoonistmovie.com). We wanted Harvey's thoughts on the challenges of self-publishing, but the interview also touched upon a range of other topics, which can be viewed here for the first time.
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So happy for the success he got, what a funny dude😆
He'd be turning in his grave if he saw how much the superhero shit has infected everything today.
I was never exposed to the "comic book" as a child and am curious about the utility of it as something useful for young children , Harvey wrote for adults but I believe had "someone else" do all of the drawing , I don't know how that works when the cartoonist is actually 2 people, the writer of dialogue and the artist , just kinda unusual that a "famous" cartoonist doesn't do the art too , in 2024 Ai is probably easily capable of spitting out the art for anyone to write narration for , which is fine too , but isn't the artist a critical part of "comics" ?
Really interesting listening to !
What a special human being. A brilliant and underrated talent.
Love this guy. But, I do think he had a sort of limited, reductive perspective on super hero comics. Granted, the superhero comics that were around when he was coming up were definitely pretty shallow. I'd argue that much has changed in that department. Superhero stories are sort of our modern myths. The Greeks had Hercules, we have Superman. And even before it had changed, people were dreaming of unique ways to approach the superhero genre. Some of the concepts and stories out there are wild. Check out books like Hellblazer or Lucifer.
for a guy name pecker hes not suck a d i c k
"Harvey you never planned anything in your life!" - David Letterman
All he does is bitch and whine omg shuuuuuut uuuuuup
Harvey was a great and wise man. I love listening to him talk. RIP Harvey Pekar
I also met Harvey close to the end of his life. He was at a comics art festival in Seattle. I had hoped to work with him on a small art project that was gaining steam, but we never got the chance. I think, if everything had fallen into place, we could have. This is a fantastic video for a number of reasons. Mainly, I enjoyed seeing Harvey relaxed and contemplative, not the cartoon character we had gotten so used to from his appearances on Letterman. Wow, I would have loved to have interviewed him too! Only now, all these years later, do I feel that I have my channel set up and my interview chops refined enough to do him justice.
Completely different guy from the letterman show. I really can’t believe it’s the same man.
I liked the American Splendor movie and I'd like to buy some of the comics but I never really see them anywhere.
Harvey Pekar sounds like a low-class doofus in this video, repeating _You know . . ._ and _I mean . . ._ over and over, but if you read his jazz criticism, he really knows what he’s talking about, and it’s not pretentious bullshit. Some of his existential reflections in _American Splendor_ were also eloquent. He was really a smart guy, just not a good speaker, probably because he grew up in a low-class environment.
Hehe yh crazy how often he repeats u know, even on letterman. Oh well, we all have our idiosyncrasies i guess. Unusual guy.
There's some fantastic graphic novels, but comiccon it's kinda cringe the comic crowd reminds me the larping nerds. im writing a rocknroll graphic nove later Cunts😎🤘
RIP Old Friend....
It's a weird thing, but he has basically been proven wrong. He is among a number of comics creators from the 1970s and 1980s who basically argued that comics should somehow evolve past super-hero stories to more serious or mature subject matter. It just seems awfully pretentious. Comics are great at portraying the fantasy and science fiction genres. And, contrary to what Pekar thought, the general public wound up embracing that.
When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, one of our favorite comics was called Classics Illustrated: did you never get to see these?
yes, I did and enjoyed some of them. However as a kid of the '50's and 60's I gravitated toward the western and superhero genre.@@deborahkeesee7412
It's more a reflection of modern society being continually dumbed down. The established fan based was used to push super hero movies as the producers had a stack of material and characters already story boarded out. Culture got lazy and degenerate.
@deborahkeesee7412 I sell comics and I have a full box of them. They have great subject matters
@RidgebackHQ 6:55 "Comics have gotten off to such a *rotten* start. Although certainly a lot of people are making a lot of money in comics. But considering what comics can do, they've been tremendously limited by the people that produce them". I don't think it's a misrepresentation to say that Pekar is disparaging superhero comics -- he's cynical and dismissive of it. Harvey Pekar is one of these people who think that what he does or what Joe Sacco does is serious art and what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby did was low art. It's plainly pretentious.
often life is just dark, pure and simple, hard to keep your mood on the positive and hold a somewhat straight face - for me in those moments, the american splendor movie with Giamatti always cheers me up
When I see how articulate he is here, if confirms for me, Letterman really talked down to him and conducted a shitty interview. Harvey was real.
DL was always about doing a bit, and often missed a chance for real connection and truth at a time when the clock was running down for it. Too bad for us all.
@@lulumoon6942 you're right.and Letterman hates himself now for it. he admits it. he calls those years wasted.
@@lulumoon6942 Charles Grodin always called him on his BS.Ever watch his appearences? Hilarious.
I disagree - I think the Letterman/Pekar interviews were great. They would sway from brotherly ribbing and bickering to ideological confrontation - a kind of chat show style that hasn't been seen for years now, and probably won't again - fuelled largely by Harvey's choice to go on as a slightly more amplified caricature. That's the real difference with him here - he's just talking about the work, whereas back in the Letterman days he was very much promoting it.
@@jameshughes7947 You thought they were great. Harvey however did not with all due respect. Neither did Letterman. They weren't great. So much intellectual potential but you, like many, prefer the shallow fighting.
Drink everytime when Harvey says: "you know"
The problem all starts with that fact that they are called COMICS. Automatically sounds like something for fun only.
Thanks for this x
This was not too long before he died.
Disappointing to hear a writer i respect lean so heavily on a verbal crutch, ya know
I just saw his movie by accident, I liked it.
These guys are generally not appreciated in their time.
As much as he pissed off Letterman, Letterman now looks back wishing he could've had Pekar on his show more often.
it was good for both of them, very entertaining
Well yes however hindsight is safe...poor Dave's heart was already at risk 😂
Comment was written practically verbatim off the Wikipedia page
He didn't "piss off" Letterman. Every appearance was pre-planned. EXACTLY like Andy Kaufman's appearances. IF Letterman was really "pissed" at someone, they weren't even allowed on NBC Property, let alone David's show. Harmony Korrine can attest to that.
Harvey Pekar was cool
I met Harvey about a year before he died. He knew a lot of stuff... truly a brilliant guy.
Great interview. Thanks for uploading.
Ya know..
com'on man..............
I guess most of us people have some tics, quirks and/or habits, don't we?
Harvey took great pride in representing the “little man. “ He cast himself in that role and… damn it, he knew it was one he was born to play.
But a very articulate and inteligent little man'
RIP this truly awesome artist..
Thanks for posting this!
Couldn't agree more in the whole european Franco-Belgium graphic Novel scene, SCI-Fi with superheroes in tights, is actually a minor genre among many...
I love Harvey to bits but the way I see it he only concerned himself with American comics. His criticism of most comics being superhero comics is only relevant in regards to American comics. The French/Belgian comic book scene did awesome graphic novels going all the way back to the 70's (at least). The Americans may have come up with the term Graphic Novel but they didn't invent the graphic novel as a medium if you ask me. I have a feeling Harvey Pekar didn't know anything about European comics/graphic novels.
@@PSYCHOTRONICbrdcstI think he got stuck on his views of the comics from the 50/60/70s which were IMHO boring, and he never bothered to check if things had changed. IMHO stuff started to get interesting for a more mature audience in the late 80s.
Thanks for posting the interview!
well i guess it's cause it began with Crumb. Crumb was like his introduction into this world so I'm sure he feels like he owes Crumb a lot. He's not gonna mention EVERY single artist cause i'm sure he's worked with tons.
things will always be like that, its like movies, you only hear about the director and the actors, although there´s a bunch of artists behind that.
We still miss you Harvey.
Is that fair? Crumb was his friend and somebody whom he kept in touch with.
I miss this guy.
It's sad Harvey never ever mentioned his crew of artists, some with him since issue #1. Never shy to drop Crumb's name though. Crumb and me...me and Crumb.
Yeah. Gary Dumm’s work for Harvey was great.
"accidental overdose from TWO antidepressants" goodjob goverment, and weed is still illegal
So true, so true.
I'm doing a project on you and you are the BEST! Me and my class miss you. You changed the world of comics.
You're right about the underground stuff. There was this artist, Victor Moscoso, who appeared in ZAP comics who used to do these visually stunning, yet incomprehensible surrealist comics that were mind blowing.
I love the term "realist" movement. Sounds so much better Than "underground" comics.
I share his idea that comics are way too much about superheroes and shit. Love(d) this guy.
today could be Harvey's 72nd birthday...... i miss you a lot, man.
a rare and unique talent. the will never see his like again.