Word: splendorful
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...American Splendor," the world's most low-key comic, has been around for twenty five years. Each issue contains several short non-fiction pieces written by Harvey Pekar, a Cleveland, Ohio native, and drawn by many different artists, including Robert Crumb. With his mostly autobiographical stories, Pekar has fearlessly pursued the mundanities of life: going to the market, shoveling snow, talking with co-workers, and elevated them to a work of art. The latest issue, published by Dark Horse comics, "American Splendor: Portrait of the Artist in His Declining Years," has been released as a "Special 25-Year Anniversary Issue...
Pekar uses a simple but induplicable device to hold the reader's interest - sheer force of personality. Most everything in "American Splendor" revolves around Harvey Pekar. From outright autobiography to essays (or "rants" as he calls them) on subjects he cares about, over the twenty-five years Pekar has created a remarkable hot/cold effect with his self-portrayal...
...other thing "American Splendor" has become known for are its shaggy-dog stories of everyday life. Though he has done fewer of them in recent issues, the latest contains two that are typical. "Reduction," in which Pekar's co-worker, Toby, explains his new diet, concludes with the explanation: "I'm determined to lose weight for the millennium." How simple, yet how radical...
...consider these vignettes "American Splendor"'s greatest contribution to comix. The daring of putting ordinary, "dull" events into comic form, simultaneously elevates the mundane, and challenges the audience with what it means to be a comic. It's almost thrilling. If comics can handle a story about something as trivial as misplacing your keys, for example, they can handle anything. And why shouldn't there be a comic about misplaced keys? That's my life...
...tour de force of the walks is the guides, many of them academics or thespians with an intimate grasp of London's history. How better to capture the pulse of Shakespeare's day than to trek down narrow, cobblestone streets with a literary historian who can bring the raunchy splendor of those times to life...