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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview With Harvey Pekar
Aired August 17, 2003 - 09:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Life as a file clerk in Cleveland, Ohio, doesn't sound like much inspiration for art, does it? But Harvey Pekar turned the mundane details of the humdrum life into the underground comic, "American Splendor," which is now a movie that won the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance film festival. Harvey joins us today from New York.
Good morning, Harvey.
HARVEY PEKAR, AUTHOR, "AMERICAN SPLENDOR": Good morning.
PHILLIPS: Now, I made a bet with you. I'm going to try to make you smile by the end of this interview.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: You know what? Don't strain yourself, Harvey, OK?
PEKAR: It's hard to be down, you know?
PHILLIPS: Of course. Of course. How's your wife like? How does she put up with you?
PEKAR: You've got to ask her; she's not down here now. She wouldn't want me putting words in her mouth.
PHILLIPS: I'm calling Joyce. I'm tracking her down.
All right. "American Splendor." Tell us about the movie, and what you think about this. Did you ever expect that you would see your life on the big screen?
PEKAR: No, I didn't. People have been trying to base a movie on my comics since 1980, and they haven't been able to raise the money. So I auctioned it in 1999 to a company called Good Machine here in New York. You know, I was just thinking about the option money; I didn't think I'd be able to get anybody and -- but they brought HBO aboard and they built a tremendous team of people and made what I think is a really good movie.
PHILLIPS: It's a real life Americana. Gosh, you watch this and it's just hysterical. We don't see enough movies like this, where it's real life and real people. For folks that have not seen this, how would you describe it?
PEKAR: Well, it's an autobiographical comic book in which I concentrate on the mundane occurrences of everyday life because I think that they add up to something very large. And I -- I just try -- you know, try and write about things that people can identify with.
PHILLIPS: Well, people are definitely identifying with this, Harvey. Take us back to when you were a young boy. Did you find yourself sort of thinking in ways that other kids didn't? Did you sketch things out? Did you keep a journal? Did you think you were a pretty funny guy?
PEKAR: Oh, yeah. I thought I was a pretty funny guy, a class clown, a street corner comedian. I -- you know, I read a lot. I didn't keep a journal. I started my writing career out as a jazz critic in 1959 when I was 19 years old. When I knew Robert Crumb. You know who he is?
PHILLIPS: Yes, I know who -- no, wait a minute. I'm thinking of somebody else. Who is Robert Crumb? Am I aging myself, now?
PEKAR: No. I don't know what you're doing.
PHILLIPS: Tell us who Robert Crumb is.
PEKAR: Robert Crumb is one of the creators of the alternative or underground comic book movement. And I knew Crumb in the early 1960s, before his career had started. And he was living in Cleveland in a neighborhood, in the same neighborhood as I was. And I saw some of his work and, you know, it wasn't typical superhero stuff or talking animal stuff or things like that that people normally expect from comics and the reason that a lot of people think comics are intrinsically limited. They think that comics can't do anything but that.
So I decided -- when I saw Crumb's work which was quite unusual and dealt with other aspects of life, that comics could deal with just about anything, and it was as good an art form as any other. It could do the same as movies could do, pretty much. So I just decided I would try and write comics like this. And it took me a pretty long time to do it. I kept on thinking about it and finding my vision of what I wanted to do.
Until 1972, when Crumb, then who was kind of a hero of the hippie movement, came through Cleveland on a visit and stayed with me. And I showed him some comics that I had written in storyboard fashion with -- you know, panels and dialogue and captions and stuff like that, and descriptions to the artist about how I wanted people to look and crumb liked them. And he decided that he would -- he asked me if he could take them home and illustrate them, something he had never done for anybody else.
And he did, and my stuff started getting published. And he showed it to other cartoonists, they liked it. And they started illustrating it. Remember, I'm not an illustrator, I'm an author. So in 1975, I decided that I would take some of this enormous amount of money that I was spending on collecting records, and I would channel it in into a comic book, "American Splendor." And that's what I did. In '76 the first one came out, and I've been putting them out ever since.
PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what; you take rather mundane pieces of life and make it very entertaining and interesting. Harvey, thank you so much for spending some time with thus morning and I hope everyone goes on see this movie. It already won the Grand Jury prize of 2003 Sundance film festival. That's quite a statement right there.
One more smile, Harvey, come on. Just one more. Love you, Harvey. Thank you.
PEKAR: OK. Love you, too.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 17, 2003 - 09:41 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Life as a file clerk in Cleveland, Ohio, doesn't sound like much inspiration for art, does it? But Harvey Pekar turned the mundane details of the humdrum life into the underground comic, "American Splendor," which is now a movie that won the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance film festival. Harvey joins us today from New York.
Good morning, Harvey.
HARVEY PEKAR, AUTHOR, "AMERICAN SPLENDOR": Good morning.
PHILLIPS: Now, I made a bet with you. I'm going to try to make you smile by the end of this interview.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: You know what? Don't strain yourself, Harvey, OK?
PEKAR: It's hard to be down, you know?
PHILLIPS: Of course. Of course. How's your wife like? How does she put up with you?
PEKAR: You've got to ask her; she's not down here now. She wouldn't want me putting words in her mouth.
PHILLIPS: I'm calling Joyce. I'm tracking her down.
All right. "American Splendor." Tell us about the movie, and what you think about this. Did you ever expect that you would see your life on the big screen?
PEKAR: No, I didn't. People have been trying to base a movie on my comics since 1980, and they haven't been able to raise the money. So I auctioned it in 1999 to a company called Good Machine here in New York. You know, I was just thinking about the option money; I didn't think I'd be able to get anybody and -- but they brought HBO aboard and they built a tremendous team of people and made what I think is a really good movie.
PHILLIPS: It's a real life Americana. Gosh, you watch this and it's just hysterical. We don't see enough movies like this, where it's real life and real people. For folks that have not seen this, how would you describe it?
PEKAR: Well, it's an autobiographical comic book in which I concentrate on the mundane occurrences of everyday life because I think that they add up to something very large. And I -- I just try -- you know, try and write about things that people can identify with.
PHILLIPS: Well, people are definitely identifying with this, Harvey. Take us back to when you were a young boy. Did you find yourself sort of thinking in ways that other kids didn't? Did you sketch things out? Did you keep a journal? Did you think you were a pretty funny guy?
PEKAR: Oh, yeah. I thought I was a pretty funny guy, a class clown, a street corner comedian. I -- you know, I read a lot. I didn't keep a journal. I started my writing career out as a jazz critic in 1959 when I was 19 years old. When I knew Robert Crumb. You know who he is?
PHILLIPS: Yes, I know who -- no, wait a minute. I'm thinking of somebody else. Who is Robert Crumb? Am I aging myself, now?
PEKAR: No. I don't know what you're doing.
PHILLIPS: Tell us who Robert Crumb is.
PEKAR: Robert Crumb is one of the creators of the alternative or underground comic book movement. And I knew Crumb in the early 1960s, before his career had started. And he was living in Cleveland in a neighborhood, in the same neighborhood as I was. And I saw some of his work and, you know, it wasn't typical superhero stuff or talking animal stuff or things like that that people normally expect from comics and the reason that a lot of people think comics are intrinsically limited. They think that comics can't do anything but that.
So I decided -- when I saw Crumb's work which was quite unusual and dealt with other aspects of life, that comics could deal with just about anything, and it was as good an art form as any other. It could do the same as movies could do, pretty much. So I just decided I would try and write comics like this. And it took me a pretty long time to do it. I kept on thinking about it and finding my vision of what I wanted to do.
Until 1972, when Crumb, then who was kind of a hero of the hippie movement, came through Cleveland on a visit and stayed with me. And I showed him some comics that I had written in storyboard fashion with -- you know, panels and dialogue and captions and stuff like that, and descriptions to the artist about how I wanted people to look and crumb liked them. And he decided that he would -- he asked me if he could take them home and illustrate them, something he had never done for anybody else.
And he did, and my stuff started getting published. And he showed it to other cartoonists, they liked it. And they started illustrating it. Remember, I'm not an illustrator, I'm an author. So in 1975, I decided that I would take some of this enormous amount of money that I was spending on collecting records, and I would channel it in into a comic book, "American Splendor." And that's what I did. In '76 the first one came out, and I've been putting them out ever since.
PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what; you take rather mundane pieces of life and make it very entertaining and interesting. Harvey, thank you so much for spending some time with thus morning and I hope everyone goes on see this movie. It already won the Grand Jury prize of 2003 Sundance film festival. That's quite a statement right there.
One more smile, Harvey, come on. Just one more. Love you, Harvey. Thank you.
PEKAR: OK. Love you, too.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
