More Bad News For Cleveland

Harvey Pekar Found Dead

Legendary comic-book author Harvey Pekar was found dead at his Cleveland home in the small hours of this morning, local police announced. Pekar, 70, was best known for writing the comic-book series "American Splendor," published intermittently since 1976, which attracted a wide following with its gritty, grouchy tales of everyday Cleveland life. "He's the soul of Cleveland," said R. Crumb, Pekar's longtime collaborator. The Washington Post notes that the series was one of the first autobiographical comic books, and helped introduce the genre to a new generation of "serious" readers. "He created, almost singlehandedly, an entirely new kind of comics and his commitment to what he did was absolute and uncompromising," says one of Pekar's editors. "We've all suffered a huge loss today, in comics of course, but also in American culture."Pekar had been suffering from prostate cancer, asthma, high blood pressure and depression, but hadseemed in good spirits before he slept the previous evening, his wife said. Pekar worked as a file clerk at a local veterans' hospital even after becoming famous; in a 1997 interview, Pekar had pledged to keep writing the American Splendor series for as long as he lasted. "There's no end in sight for me," he said. "It's a continuing autobiography, a life's work."

Read original story in The Plain Dealer | Monday, July 12, 2010