Sep 24, 12:57 PM · Splendiferous
Recently, I had the opportunity to catch American Splendor down at the local movie theater. As I’ve been telling people who have already seen it, I didn’t know much about Harvey Pekar. American Splendor has been notoriously hard to find for years. The first time I heard about it was in an issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where one of the Turtles (Donatello, I think) wanted to be sure to pick up a copy of American Splendor on their comics shop run. I thought I would do the same, looking for it myself at the local shop. Defeated after several stores, I pretty much gave up on it. Other than what I’ve since read from comic reviews, I had no idea what it was like.
This made for a wonderful movie experience, however. I loved this movie. Anyone who works hard all day and comes home to work on comics at night will love this movie. For that matter, anyone that wonders about what the hell is life all about anyway will love it. The movie is worth it alone for the Revenge of the Nerds conversations.
Last night, I’m happy to report, I finally picked up a copy of the comic, at a bookstore, no less. It is everything I hoped for and more. Pekar’s writing shows the harsh juxtaposition between life’s beauties and despairs, and at the same time reminds me of being a kid, wanting to desperately express myself through comics. So, watch the movie, and pick up the comics to gaze through if you are at a bookstore. You won’t be sorry.