Best of American Splendor

Best of American Splendor
by Harvey Pekar

Best of American Splendor
List Price: $24.00
Our Price: $14.34
You Save: $9.66 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $10.62 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Harvey Pekar
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-01-25
ISBN: 0345479386
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Ballantine Books

Book Reviews of Best of American Splendor

Book Review: Chronicler of the quotidian
Summary: 5 Stars

There are times when we want to leave the world in which we live and escape for awhile in literature or films that transport us to situations quite different from our own. But there are also times when we long to make contact with literature or film which reassures us that our everyday lives, with all their joys and triumphs, headaches and failures, are the same as everyone else's. We want to revel in our normalcy, or we want to be at least accompanied in our normalcy.

Harvey Pekar is the country's very best chronicler of the quotidian. His American Splendor comix are pulled from the stuff of everyday life: the fact that our work is sometimes dull and a pain-in-the-keester, but can also be a place where we build community; that marriage is joyful and also sheer hard labor; that small things--bender-fenders, late mail, waiting for a bus in the rain--can be occasions for huge anxieties, even as small things--the eccentricities of co-workers, the enthusiasm a bus driver has for botany, the smile of a foster child--can also be occasions for huge joys. Harvey Pekar, for all his own idiosyncracies, lives a life that's very much like our own. His American Splendor not only reassures us that we're not alone; it also serves as a prism for us to put our lives in perspective.

The Best of American Splendor collects Pekar's work from the mid 1990s to the early 2000s. The pieces include not only the straightforwardly autobiographical comix for which Pekar is famous--including those that honestly portray his less pleasing qualities, such as his penny-pinching, his self-pity, and his occasional bouts of megalomania--but also a couple of comix essays on Russian modernist literature (pp. 39-40) and Django Reinhardt (pp. 123-124) that underscore just what a natural intellectual Pekar is. His "Hitherto Untold" story (pp. 128-138) is a touching parable of historical memory and heroism. A very nice bonus in this collection is a comix written British author Colin Warneford that details his autism, which Pekar incorporates into his own "Transatlantic Comics" (pp. 96-118). Warneford, by the way, claims that his major influence is R. Crumb (whose only artwork in this collection is the cover), and it would be easy to mistake his darkly hatchworked artwork for Crumb's. Finally, old favorites like Toby and Mr. Boats make appearances, although only brief ones.

A great introduction to those readers who are only now discovering Pekar, and a great collection of his recent work for longtime fans.

Summary of Best of American Splendor

Experience the heartwarming all-American story of a crank and his comic book.

What?s a file clerk from Cleveland doing with an Oscar nomination? How did a movie about Harvey Pekar win the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival? The story begins in 1976, when Harvey began publishing his autobiographical, slice-of-downtrodden-life comic book series American Splendor, illustrated by a who?s who of underground comic artists, including R. Crumb, Kevin Brown, Greg Budgett, Sean Carroll, Sue Cavey, Gary Dumm, Val Mayerik, and Gerry Shamray. After self-publishing American Splendor for nearly two decades under less than splendid conditions (and racking impressive accolades in the process), Harvey finally got a break when Dark Horse Comics took over the publication in the early 1990s. It was an opportunity for Harvey to reach a wider audience?which, as it turned out, included a few Hollywood types, too. (Who knew?) But that?s another story. . . .

Now we are happy to bring you the Best of American Splendor, a collection of some of Harvey?s greatest work. Harvey Pekar has been compared to Theodore Dreiser, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Lenny Bruce, but this collection is a true American original. Just like Harvey.

Graphic Novels Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Graphic Novels Books
Fairy Tail 5 (Fairy Tail (Kodansha Comics)) ImageFairy Tail 5 (Fairy Tail (Kodansha Comics))
by Hiro Mashima
Del Rey; Published: 2009-01-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.89
Price in other shops: $10.99
Flight Volume Five (Flight Graphic Novels) ImageFlight Volume Five (Flight Graphic Novels)
Villard; Published: 2008-07-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.99
Price in other shops: $27.00
Dark Wraith of Shannara ImageDark Wraith of Shannara
by Terry Brooks
Del Rey; Del Rey; Published: 2008-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.90
Price in other shops: $13.95
The Song of Daniel ImageThe Song of Daniel
by Philip Lee Williams
Ballantine Books; Published: 1991-12-13; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Price in other shops: $4.99
I Saw You...: Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections ImageI Saw You...: Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2009-02-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops: $12.95
The Man in the Brown Suit ImageThe Man in the Brown Suit
by Agatha Christie
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; Published: 2007-12-03; Hardcover; Book
The Alchemist (Collins Readers) ImageThe Alchemist (Collins Readers)
by Paulo Coelho
Collins; Published: 2006-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.23
Buddha, Volume 4: The Forest of Uruvela (Buddha) ImageBuddha, Volume 4: The Forest of Uruvela (Buddha)
by Osamu Tezuka
Vertical; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
X-Men 2 ImageX-Men 2
by Chris Claremont
Del Rey; Published: 2003-03-04; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops: $6.99
Happy Trails ImageHappy Trails
by Berke Breathed
Little Brown & Co (P); Published: 1990-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.16
Price in other shops: $8.95
Similar Books and other products
Black Hole ImageBlack Hole
by Charles Burns
Pantheon; Published: 2008-01-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.48
Price in other shops: $18.95
American Splendor: Another Dollar ImageAmerican Splendor: Another Dollar
by Harvey Pekar, Zachary Baldus
Vertigo; Published: 2009-01-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.83
Price in other shops: $14.99
The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb ImageThe Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
by R. Crumb
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2009-10-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.64
Price in other shops: $25.95
American Splendor      Our Movie Year ImageAmerican Splendor Our Movie Year
by Harvey Pekar
Ballantine Books; Published: 2004-12-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.76
Price in other shops: $16.95
The Quitter ImageThe Quitter
by Harvey Pekar, Dean Haspiel
Vertigo; Published: 2006-09-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.73
Price in other shops: $12.99
Bob and Harv's Comics ImageBob and Harv's Comics
by Harvey Pekar
Running Press; Published: 1996-11-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.91
Price in other shops: $16.00
Our Cancer Year ImageOur Cancer Year
by Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner
Running Press; Published: 1994-10-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.94
Price in other shops: $19.95
American Splendor ImageAmerican Splendor
GIAMATTI,PAUL; Release date: 2004-02-03; DVD
Best price: $1.68
Price in other shops: $9.98
American Splendor and More American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar ImageAmerican Splendor and More American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar
by Harvey Pekar
Ballantine Books; Published: 2003-07-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.50
Price in other shops: $20.00
The New American Splendor Anthology: From Off the Streets of Cleveland ImageThe New American Splendor Anthology: From Off the Streets of Cleveland
by Harvey Pekar
Running Press; Published: 1993-01-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.81
Price in other shops: $19.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories