A review by uosdwisrdewoh
Best of American Splendor by Harvey Pekar

3.0

After reading Jonathan Ames's The Alcoholic and finding it a bit wanting, I'd wanted to take on this innovator and master of autobiographical comics. This is a collection of the odds and ends of his long running comic, with most material coming from the 90s. It's very low key stuff. Reading the book feels like nothing more or less than simply like spending time with Harvey. He'll tell you about books he's reading, his neuroses, his encounters in the workplace, through stories that don't particularly go anywhere. Sometimes, though, he'll give homespun wisdom that makes you want to tear out certain pages and put them above your desk. He works with a variety of artists of varying quality, from very expressive Dean Haspiel, whose work I admired in The Alcoholic, to the solid but not spectacular art of Gary Dunn and Joe Sacco. Most of the stories, though, are illustrated by the underground comics stalwart Frank Stack, whose art, while expressive, is also very sketchy and impressionistic. At its best it lends an immediacy and verve to the stories, but more often than not, Harvey and his surroundings look a bit ill-formed and lumpy.

This volume is a bit odd to read in that most of the stories rotate around Our Cancer Year. You get stories referring back to his time with cancer and how it affected his body, his career, and his marriage, but not the full details of that year itself. As such, The Best of American Splendor comes off as more of a supplement to that book than a volume that stands on its own. It's interesting in its own right, but not essential.