Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When, years later, Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, the idea that comic books can be a valid art form for adults inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. An admirer of naturalist writers like Theodore Dreiser, Harvey makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life, a warts-and-all self portrait. First published in 1976, the comic earns Harvey cult fame throughout the 1980s and eventually leads him to the sardonic Joyce Barber, a partner in a Delaware comic book store who end ups being Harvey's true soul mate as they experience the bizarre byproducts of Harvey's cult celebrity stature.
| Release Date: | Jan 2003 |
|---|---|
| Genre: | Comedy / Drama / Biography |
| Awards: | Nominated for Oscar. Another 28 wins & 32 nominations |
| Cast: | Chris Ambrose (Superman), Joey Krajcar (Batman), Josh Hutcherson (Robin), Cameron Carter (Green Lantern), Daniel Tay (Young Harvey), Mary Faktor (Housewife), Paul Giamatti (Harvey Pekar), Harvey Pekar (Real Harvey), Shari Springer Berman (Interviewer (voice)), Larry John Meyers (Throat Doctor (as Larry John Myers)), Vivienne Benesch (Lana), Barbara Brown (Nurse), Earl Billings (Mr. Boats), Danny Hoch (Marty), James Urbaniak (Robert Crumb) |