American Splendor

Harvey Pekar works as a file clerk at the local VA hospital. At home, Harvey spends his time reading, listening to music, and writing articles about jazz and literature. His apartment is filled with books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift stores for more. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, it inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. He makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life. First published in 1976, the comic earns him cult fame throughout the 1980s and eventually leads him to sardonic Joce Brabner who end ups being Harvey's true soul mate. American Splendor brings Harvey Pekar to three-dimensional life. It is the anti-biopic that Pekar's life and works demands, a film as unique, smart and wonderful as Pekar himself.