The Songs of Johnny Go

Harvey Pekar to be buried next to Eliot Ness. Neat. Well, now I have something to see should I ever be in Cleveland.

When I heard that Pekar died, I felt incredibly sad, even to the point of tears. This is bizarre because I never really liked his work. I loved the film of AMERICAN SPLENDOR, and I admire and respect the fuck out of him not just for what he did for comics (it's been argued that he's the equal of Alan Moore when it comes to his impact and influence on the medium), but also for how he's one of the pioneers of autobiographical storytelling. His actual comics never did much for me, though. So why did it hit me so hard? At least it was rather cool to see that it hit everybody else hard as well, to the point that "Harvey Pekar" became a trending topic on Twitter.

Also cool: Ty Templeton remembering his first meeting with Pekar, told through comics. Ty is one of my very favorite comic writer/artists (the mastermind behind most of the best DCAU Batman comics!), and his website is always a delight. I particularly enjoy when he channels his inner Harvey Pekar through stories like this.

I love that story, as did many in Ty's comments. "Poignant" is the word that keeps coming up. I find Ty's response to the compliments rather amusing, and also telling:

I feel odd accepting any compliment for what is a verbatim conversation simply written down, but it did involve drawing, so I suppose there’s that.

That comment resonated with me. Recently, I started writing original work (non-autobiographical, non-fanfic), and I'd forgotten how great it feels to have the freedom and ability to tell anything, without being tied down to fact or someone else's continuity. You put your imagination to work and play at the same time, and I can easily imagine that, to some, autobiographical bits feel almost lazy, because you didn't go through the effort to create something. You just told it.

But then again, that's what Harvey Pekar did. Hell, unlike Ty, he didn't even draw anything.

What's my point? Hell, I dunno. This was meant to just be a post of comic-related links and fun, and the rambling took over. Maybe I'll get that one written sometime before I go up tonight. I feel like I should make some comment connecting what I do on stage to what Harvey did on paper, but eh, I don't want to sound like a wanky poseur. Feel free to connect the subtext yourself.