I’m from the beatnik generation, where everybody wanted to be a poet or writer or something. And at that time, I was a jazz critic, and I was always thinking, theorizing about what makes great art or what’s important in art. – Harvey Pekar
I write scripts in storyboard fashion using stick figures, and thought balloons and word balloons and captions. Then I’ll write descriptions of what scenes should look like and turn it over to the artist. – Harvey Pekar
It didn’t take long to establish myself, as far as people thinking my work was good. They liked it from the start. – Harvey Pekar
Of course I don’t think I have it made by any means. I’m too insecure, obsessive and paranoid for that. – Harvey Pekar
I really don’t have a lot in common with the people who attend the Comic Con. It’s like assuming that all people who write prose are the same. – Harvey Pekar
You can find heroism everyday, like guys working terrible jobs because they’ve got to support their families. Or as far as humor, the things I see on the job, on the street, are far funnier than anything you’ll ever see on TV. – Harvey Pekar
American Splendor is just an ongoing journal. It’s an ongoing autobiography. I started it when I was in my early 30s, and I just keep going. – Harvey Pekar
I’m trying to get every man involved in art, into experimental music, or painting, or novel-writing. – Harvey Pekar
I’m kind of concerned about ‘Ego & Hubris’ because I’m thinking that people will read it and maybe even be entertained by it, but at the end of it, you know, they’ll wonder, ‘Why did this guy write this? What was the point of it?’ – Harvey Pekar
I’d been familiar with comics, and I’d collected ’em when I was a kid, but after I got into junior high school, there wasn’t much I was interested in. – Harvey Pekar
There’s no limitation on comics, nothing. From a logical standpoint, how can there be a limitation on comics? You can use any word in the dictionary. You can put them in any order you want to. You can use a vast variety of illustrating styles. People could do all sorts of things. – Harvey Pekar
I think you can find all the elements that you can find in great literature in mundane experiences. – Harvey Pekar
I decided I was going to tell these stories. I went around and met Crumb. He was the cartoonist. I started realizing comics weren’t just kid stuff. – Harvey Pekar
It seemed to me you could do anything in comics. So I started doing my thing, which is mainly influenced by novelists, stand-up comedians, that sort of thing. – Harvey Pekar
I have to be a freelance writer for the rest of my life, unless I get some kind of real lucky break. But other than that, I’ll always have to work. I always worry about whether my stuff is going to get over. Will they like this, will they like that? – Harvey Pekar
I was sort of on a mission with ‘American Splendor.’ I wanted to try to prove that comics could do things. I wanted to expand them beyond superheroes and talking animals. And I knew that was going to take a long time. But I just started writing an autobiography about my quotidian life. – Harvey Pekar
