Early comics work Pekar's friendship with
Robert Crumb led to the creation of the self-published, autobiographical comic book series
American Splendor. Crumb and Pekar became friends through their shared love of
jazz records. It took Pekar a decade to do so: "I theorized for maybe ten years about doing comics." Pekar's influences from the literary world included
James Joyce,
Arthur Miller,
George Ade,
Henry Roth, and
Daniel Fuchs. Around 1972, Pekar laid out some stories with crude stick figures and showed them to Crumb and another artist,
Robert Armstrong. Impressed, they both offered to illustrate. Pekar & Crumb's one-pager "Crazy Ed" was published as the back cover of Crumb's ''
The People's Comics'' (
Golden Gate Publishing Company, 1972), becoming Pekar's first published work of comics. Including "Crazy Ed" and before the publication of
American Splendor #1, Pekar wrote a number of other comic stories that were published in a variety of outlets: • "Crazy Ed", with
Robert Crumb, in ''The People's Comics'' (
Golden Gate Publishing Company, 1972) • "A Mexican Tale," with
Greg Budgett and Munan, in
Flaming Baloney X (Propaganda Ink, c. 1975) • "It Pays to Advertise" with
Willy Murphy, in
Flamed-Out Funnies #1 (
Keith Green, Aug. 1975) • "Ain' It the Truth" with Willy Murphy, in
Flamed-Out Funnies #1 (Keith Green, Aug. 1975) • "The Boys on the Corner: A Good Shit Is Best" with Willy Murphy, in
Flamed-Out Funnies #1 (Keith Green, Aug. 1975) • "The Kinsman Cowboys: How'd Ya Get Inta This Bizness Ennyway?" with
Greg Budgett &
Gary Dumm, in
Bizarre Sex #4 (
Kitchen Sink Press, Oct. 1975) • "Famous Street Fights: The Champ" with
Robert Armstrong in
Comix Book #4 (Kitchen Sink Press, Feb. 1976) • "Don't Rain on My Parade" with Robert Armstrong in
Snarf #6 (Kitchen Sink Press, Feb. 1976)
American Splendor The first issue of Pekar's self-published
American Splendor series appeared in May 1976, with stories illustrated by Crumb, Dumm, Budgett, and
Brian Bram. Applying the "brutally frank autobiographical style of
Henry Miller," which was positively reviewed by, among others,
The New York Times. (1986 was also the year Pekar began appearing on
Late Night with David Letterman.) This was collected in the
American Splendor: Another Day paperback. In 2008 Vertigo released a second four-issue "season" of
American Splendor that was later collected in the
American Splendor: Another Dollar paperback. Pekar's best-known and longest-running collaborators include Crumb, Dumm, Budgett,
Spain Rodriguez,
Joe Zabel,
Gerry Shamray,
Frank Stack, Mark Zingarelli, and
Joe Sacco. In the 2000s, he teamed regularly with artists
Dean Haspiel and
Josh Neufeld. Other cartoonists who worked with him include
Jim Woodring,
Chester Brown,
Alison Bechdel,
Gilbert Hernandez,
Eddie Campbell,
David Collier,
Drew Friedman,
Ho Che Anderson,
Rick Geary,
Ed Piskor,
Hunt Emerson,
Bob Fingerman, and Alex Wald; as well as such non-traditional illustrators as Pekar's wife,
Joyce Brabner, and comics writer
Alan Moore. In addition to his autobiographical work on
American Splendor, Pekar wrote a number of biographies. The first of these,
American Splendor: Unsung Hero (Dark Horse Comics, 2003), illustrated by
David Collier, documented the
Vietnam War experience of Robert McNeill, one of Pekar's African-American coworkers at Cleveland's
VA hospital. In the years following, Pekar produced a large number of book-length graphic works in rapid succession, often in collaboration with other writers, the editor
Paul Buhle, and his long-time
American Splendor artist
Gary Dumm. These books often focus on biography, history, and reportage rather than the memoir comics with which Pekar had established his reputation. In 2006,
Ballantine/
Random House published Pekar's graphic biography
Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story, illustrated by Dumm. The book examines the early life and personality of
Michael Malice, a Ukrainian-born American writer and founding editor of
Overheard in New York. The project grew out of Pekar's personal encounters with Malice — initially adapting his anecdotes into a shorter comic — before expanding into a book-length character study of a figure Pekar found psychologically elusive. He co-wrote
Macedonia (Random House, June 2007) with Heather Roberson, a graphic nonfiction book based on her research and travels in the
Balkans. The book examines how the
Republic of Macedonia avoided the violent conflicts that accompanied the
breakup of Yugoslavia, while also exploring ethnic tensions between
Macedonians and
Albanians. The work is based on Roberson's field research and interviews, which Pekar adapted into a scripted narrative for comics. It marked Pekar's first major collaboration with
Ed Piskor. He was the principal writer of
Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History (
Hill & Wang, 2008), constructing much of the book’s narrative while incorporating contributions from other writers in a volume edited by Buhle. The book, primarily illustrated by Dumm, presents a history of the
New Left student movement, tracing the rise and fragmentation of
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) through personal accounts. Pekar was the principal writer of
The Beats: A Graphic History, a collaborative comics history of the
Beat Generation — featuring figures such as
Jack Kerouac and
Allen Ginsberg — illustrated by multiple artists, including Piskor, and edited by Buhle. The book, largely written by Pekar, presents a celebratory and accessible account of the Beats’ lives and cultural impact; it was published in March 2009 by Hill & Wang. Pekar served as the principal writer and adaptor — collaborating with multiple artists — of a comics treatment of
Studs Terkel's seminal 1974
oral history book
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. ''Studs Terkel's Working: A Graphic Adaptation'' was published in May 2009 by
The New Press; the book was again edited by Buhle. In the summer of 2009, Pekar started the
webcomic The Pekar Project with the online magazine
Smith. Edited by Jeff Newelt, the project was conceived as an experimental alternative to
American Splendor, featuring new stories by Pekar illustrated by multiple artists, including
Tara Seibel,
Rick Parker, Joseph Remnant, and Sean Pryor, with stories ranging from brief, abstract pieces to longer narratives. The site also served as a hub for Pekar-related content, including interviews, behind-the-scenes material, and contributions from other collaborators.
Critical writing Pekar was an assiduous
record collector as well as a freelance book, comic, and jazz critic, writing mainly about significant figures from jazz's golden age but also championing out-of-mainstream artists such as
Scott Fields,
Fred Frith and
Joe Maneri. He published his first criticism in
The Jazz Review in 1959. as well as
liner notes for
Verve Records and other labels. Pekar occasionally combined his music writing with his comics writing: during the period 1992–1996, he and
Joe Sacco created a series of comics strips for
The Village Voice primarily about jazz — the people who played it and the people who lived it. These strips were reformatted and collected in
American Splendor: Music Comics, published by Dark Horse in 1997. Pekar occasionally wrote criticism about the work of other comics creators. For instance, he famously saw
Art Spiegelman's use of animals in
Maus as potentially reinforcing stereotypes. From 1986 to 1990, Pekar had a regular column in the comics anthology
Weirdo called "Harvey Sez," in which he wrote about the contemporary comics scene. He reviewed literary fiction in the
Review of Contemporary Fiction. Pekar won awards for his essays broadcast on
public radio. ==Theater, music and media appearances==