The late Comics writer Harvey Pekar (scroll down) is the latest in my series of portraits of legendary comics creators. Pekar, who created American Splendor comics out of Cleveland was perhaps the Dostoevsky of comics, depicting the commonplace, mundane, workaday world, brought to life by many varied artists, including Robert Crumb and myself. Pekar now joins Crumb, as well as my former instructor, creator of MAD Harvey Kurtzman, his longtime collaborator Will Elder, EC Science fiction artist Wally Wood, and the master of the grotesque Basil Wolverton as the latest portrait in my ongoing series of Comics greats.
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| Basil Wolverton |
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| Harvey Pekar |
I hope you'll include a self-portrait in this series!
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say other than I'll study and admire these for many hours.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that intrigued me is why is R. Crumb seen from the side. Then I realise it's such a good move. He's always drawing himself from the front -- head on to his audience -- that this makes for a wonderfully withdrawn portrait.
Drew: are you going to do a book of these? You should. Jeet Heer
ReplyDeleteFantastic
ReplyDeleteI'm an old fan from the Heavy Metal days, the one that sunk in the most was "Bela, how many Tor?" strip. Fun times, especially when you're a preteen who's supposed to be staring at the boobs and yet you're finding fun in the complexities of the pointillism.
ReplyDeleteI love how the backgrounds say as much as the portraits. Fabulous.
ReplyDeleteI also hope these find their way into a book. That straight portrait of certified loon Basil Wolverton is profoundly funny. I don't know why, though. The utter incongruity of it, I guess. He looks more like a an accountant or the president of the PTA. (But we know better - ha ha!) Have you ever painted Milt Gross? Or Walt Kelly, Elzie Segar, or Al Capp? There are so many deserving Golden Age cartoonist subjects. America sure has a treasured pop-cultural past. (What the hell happened?)
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