Comic Book Resources

The many heads of Harvey Pekar

SMITH magazine's Harvey Heads

Harvey Pekar, the irascible, inimitable observational writer whose slice-of-life series American Splendor has been a cornerstone of alternative comics for decades now, turned 70 yesterday. (That's right, he's only seemed like a lovably grumpy old man until now.) To celebrate Pekar's big Seven-Oh, SMITH Magazine--already the home of Harvey's current comics outlet, The Pekar Project--has commissioned over 90 artists and counting to draw Pekar portraits for its Harvey Heads gallery. Contributors so far include Jeff Smith, Jim Mahfood, Jeffrey Brown, Alison Bechdel, Renee French, Molly Crabapple, Bryan Talbot, Bob Sikoryak, Peter Kuper, Josh Neufeld, Joshua W. Cotter, The Quitter's Dean Haspiel, longtime American Splendor artist Gary Dumm and many, many, many more. Click the link and soak up the splendor.

Smith debuts 'Pekar Project'

The Pekar Project

Smith magazine has unveiled their latest Webcomics enterprise, the Pekar Project, which features a collection of stories written by the king of Autobio comics hisself, Harvey Pekar. Publisher's Weekly has the details:

The Pekar Project features artwork by Tara Seibel, Sean Pryor, Joseph Remnant, and Rick Parker. Seibel first worked with Pekar in Cleveland for a year and a half on a strip called Rock City. Pekar began working with Remnant after Jay Lynch, an early underground cartoonist, recommended him. A recent School of Visual Arts graduate, Pryor worked with Pekar on a comic for the magazine Royal Flush, which is due out in October. And Parker illustrated a comic for SMITH’s Next Door Neighbor series, and was brought into the project by [editor Jeff] Newelt. “It was like assembling a band,” said Newelt of organizing the project. Parker continued the band analogy , “The songs are really about Harvey, and Jeff’s the band leader.”

The project will feature 20 complete stories that range from one-page strips to a 23-page story. The stories will run over the next three months. The Project will also feature a blog, interviews with the creators and behind-the-scenes clips.