Comic-book great HARVEY PEKAR dead at age 70

Comic-book great Harvey Pekar has died at the age of 70. Pekar was the author of American Splendor and other works classified as either graphic novels or comic book. American Splendor was also turned into a critically acclaimed film in 2003. If you haven't seen it, go out and get it today. It explains all.

Harvey Pekar had lived in Cleveland, Ohio.

Over the years, I had put on a couple of  events with him. He always drew a big crowd. Pekar loved old books and old movies (as well as orange pop and potato chips), and loved talking about them. Most recently, he wrote the forward to a new edition of Jim Tully's Circus Parade, which was published by Kent State University in 2009.That Ohio-based press is currently in the process of issuing a handful of Tully's out-of-print books, including Beggars of Life, which was the basis for the 1928 Louise Brooks film of the same name. Tully also hailed from Ohio.

(Also in the KSU press series is Shanty Irish, with a forward by director Jon Sayles.)

Below is a snapshot of Harvey Pekar and I taken a few years ago. It was an honor to know him.