Harvey gave me this before he sped away in his crappy car back in 2005 I think.

If he could see it, this would be the biggest day of Harvey Pekar’s life. All these people talking about him, reminiscing about his life and work…I can see that shit-eating grin crawl over his face right now. Man, he would have loved this. My wife woke me up this news, and I’ve been having a hard time processing it. I should have called Harvey more. He loved getting phone calls and letters. We both shared a love of attention and need for approval.

The last time I talked to Harvey in person was at his house in Cleveland. My wife and I had left New York behind, and he had mentioned we should stop by on our way back to Illinois. I called him once we got closer, and we were still debating if we should stop or not. We had Champ with us in the back, we’d been driving all day, it was kind of out of the way, etc., etc., etc….

I called, and he sounded pretty bad. Like, worse than usual. Joyce was leaving him, he said. She’d had it. I didn’t know what to say…what do you say to the most famously depressed man, on the most depressing day of his life? He kept insisting we come over, and I could tell he really wanted us to.

So we pull up, crack the windows for Champ and all I could think about was someone getting into my car. I’m really uptight about things being locked, even though I come from a town where no one locks anything. And one of my biggest fears is my cat getting loose. My car getting broken into and my cat getting loose in Cleveland ranks right up there. I remember that’s really what I was thinking about. My shit.

So we go in the house and it’s a mess of course, and there are jazz records and shit everywhere kind of like your house. Harvey had a passion for jazz, and that’s the one thing we never really talked about. He cleared an area for Sarah and I to sit, and had us sit down. He was real depressed, mumbling and growling and all that. DC had recently decided to put out American Splendor again, and he wanted me to look at his first story.

It was about a diner that was closing…some famous Cleveland diner. He had it all laid out in these stick figures, and hand written text. It was like comics I made as a kid. And then we just sit there in fucking SILENCE as I read this thing, and my wife watches me read this thing, and Harvey stares at me with this unblinking, big-eyed stare of his. Like, he’s on the edge of his seat just staring at me while I read.

So he’s clearly having an anxiety attack because I’m reading his work, and he wants to know what I think. Harvey Pekar wants to know what I think. I still can’t get over this part. And I can barely focus on the comic, because I’m afraid to say anything. I make sure to laugh where I think I should, and say “Hmm” like a doctor would. But all I can think about is my cat, my shit, and Harvey’s feelings, and Joyce leaving, and all that. I said “you’ve got something here” and “here’s what I like” and “here’s what you should do here” and all this stuff. Kind of tip-toeing around being critical, but not wanting be obviously kissing his ass, or phony. He wouldn’t respect that. Sarah, at this point, is jumping out of her skin she’s so uncomfortable. She only knew Harvey from the movie, and suddenly she’s in his living room, eyeball to buggy eyeball.

I remember him thanking me for my input. I remember some small talk about New York, and moving. I remember him saying he thought I was talented, and if I ever wrote something I should pass it to him, and he could try to get it published. I remember looking that gift horse in the mouth. I remember my drinking getting pretty bad when I moved home, and calling him and everyone else less and less. I can’t remember the last time we talked on the phone, or what it was about. I haven’t talked to Harvey in a long time. I took him for granted. And now that’s that.

I think this is one of the last recorded conversations we had, I was digging through my notes and quotes from that time. It was almost 5 years ago to the day I was lucky enough to spend an entire, uninterrupted day with Harvey Pekar. He wasn’t just an interview subject, but a friend who has had one of the biggest impacts on my personal and creative life. Here’s just bit of our conversation from my notes about that feature. The thing I’ve really taken away from this day is that I’ll always be a lot like Harvey: I’m never happy until the work is done, and the work is never done. My heart goes out to Joyce and Danielle, and everyone else with stories exactly like mine.

PEKAR CEMETARY QUOTES.DOC

[we get to the hospital Harvey worked at and decide just to drive by]

HARVEY: There probably won’t be anyone at the hospital I know. Well, I suppose if I went around and looked for them I could find somebody I know—you know, the clerks and stuff like that are off on the weekend. It’s also a matter of getting through security and stuff like that.

Toby’s always been an interesting character. He’s an interesting guy. I always thought, you know, he’s been shit on for a lot of his life. Especially when he was going to school and kids would pick on him and stuff like that. But, you know, he’s a bright guy I just think he’s autistic. He fits the textbook description of Asperger’s Disease so well.

[Near cemetery]

This is where President Garfield was buried. They’ve got a big tomb for him and stuff like that. I think Rockefeller’s buried in there.

This is morbid of me but what would you like you’re tombstone to say?

I haven’t thought about that. I haven’t particularly thought about that. When I’m dead I’m assuming I won’t be hovering around watching in the form of a ghost.

Do you have any beliefs in the afterlife? Is there something else?

No.

So this is as good as it gets?

Well, I haven’t seen anything to make me think…I mean, I’m not dogmatic about it or anything. There’s so much we don’t know—we certainly don’t know a lot more than we know. I mean, anything could happen. Anything could turn out to be true, anything’s possible I guess. I mean, I don’t think about the afterlife much. It’d be nice if there was one.

What do you look for in artwork and writing? What impresses you?

Oh, I don’t know. I look for what I consider accuracy. Accuracy in dialogue, I guess. Realism is one thing I look for.

What do you think about the human condition in general?

Things are getting worse. I think the reason it’s getting worse is because you’ve got all these ecological disasters hanging in the balance now. I mean, things have gotten to a point where you either deal with this or the future of the human race is in severe jeopardy. You know, we don’t know exactly what global warming can do but there’s a lot of scary shit about it. And you know, people are running out of oil and are not trying to come up with some kind of substitute. They’re just putting it off like Bush is.

Are you still a vegetarian?

Yeah. I mean, I’ve never had any problems with it. I can usually get a salad most places.

[at cemetery looking out at Cleveland]

This is, you know, the first time my wife ever appeared in an American Splendor story. It’s called ‘The Garfield Monument’ or Memorial or something.

Do you come places like this to relax?

No. I’m more relaxed at home. At home in bed.

Are you still interested in the mundanties of life or is the subject just something that pays the bills?

I don’t know anything else! If it’s not mundane I haven’t had any experience with it. [laughs]

You talk about getting more notoriety and approval. At what point would you decide ‘I’m famous enough’ and be happy?

I don’t know if I’ll ever reach that point [smiles]. I like praise and attention, there’s no doubt about that. I could still stand a lot more of it before I collapse.

What kind of stuff makes you laugh?

What I have a scholarly interest in is the experimental humor of the ‘50s and ‘60s like Lenny Bruce and stuff like that. I just wrote and article about a guy named Lord Buckly. And Andy Kaufman, that kind of stuff too.

[we are utterly lost driving around in the cemetery]

Do you watch films?

Not really. My wife has to pretty much drag me to see a film. The last one we saw was ‘Star Wars’ [Episode III]. It was terrible. I mean, it was just totally chaotic. All these crazy fight scenes and…[sighs]

Have you ever been surprised by someone who knows who you are?

I was surprised Johnathan Demme knew who I was and wanted to make a film based on my stuff. Every once and a while I’ll hear about an actor or something who knows me. Turns out Steve Buscemi likes my work.

I didn’t look at that whole DVD. It won some kind of award or something.

Have you gotten any free passes from cops? Like, ‘hey I’m Harvey Pekar I was in a movie for fucks sake!’

No, no. The less I have to do with cops the better.

Do you go see live jazz?

No I don’t go out. And this is another area that used to be totally different. There were like five movie theaters and restaurants—it used to be kind of a classy area. It was like Cleveland’s first major shopping district outside of downtown. 105th and Euclid. Just lines of stores and stuff. But they just tore it all down. This was Cleveland’s main drag on the East Side. Now there’s nothing. Nothing’s going on. You don’t see anything here but vacant lots.

The mayor got mad at me one time because of the American Splendor movie. Keep in mind I had nothing to say about what locations they were going to use. But she thought it made Cleveland look terrible, and that I wasn’t being a loyal Clevelander. This was after she had given me some kind of special award for the movie or something. The thing is, I think that’s some of the most interesting stuff about Cleveland. It’s middle and lower class housing and neighborhoods. I think that there’s a variety of housing and architectural styles in Cleveland. I like those double houses like I grew up in.

I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were stuck here for another day. My wife is just, you know, going to act very put out when I get back because I’ve kept the car so long. When I get back it will probably be 2:00.

You can blame me if you need to

No! no….well, if I thought I could get away with it. Nah, she wouldn’t let me off that easy. I’ll just tell her, you know, I wanted to make a good impression.

Why did you stay here all these years?

I stayed in Cleveland because I had a steady job here. Then when I was retired I had a house that was almost paid for, and there was no sense in going anywhere else. I mean, I got a big house for $70,000.

What’s the most common question you get from people?

Oh, I don’t know. I mean, there’s not just one there’s several. I don’t keep track of them anymore.

Do you get grief for being negative or realistic?

Yeah, once in a while I’ll get stuff from people who think I’m just being negative.

COLOR/FEATURE NOTES

•After the park, we swung by the VA hospital just to see where it was. We didn’t go in because Toby doesn’t work on Saturdays. Shit! He caught me up to speed on what Toby’s up to though.

•It’s a beautiful view. A relaxing breeze and a nice day. I ask Harvey where he’s most relaxed, and if he ever comes out to these places to relax. “No, I don’t care about these cemeteries, I just thought you might want to see it. I don’t get out much. I’m most comfortable and relaxed at home in my bed.”

•Trying to leave the cemetery, we got utterly lost. “Where the fuck am I?” he kept saying.

•It was getting late into the afternoon, so he started taking me back to the hotel. We drove down Cleveland’s “main drag,” which is now pretty much vacant lots and abandoned businesses. “There’s nothing here now,” he says.

•“I gotta get the car home or the wife will yell at me.” Later I’d find out they’d still be asleep when he got home. It was 3:30 in the afternoon.

•At the hotel, he told me to call with follow-ups at anytime. “There’s nothing I like more than talking about myself, so call me. It will probably be the highlight of my day!”

•Before getting out of the car, I asked him if he’d sign my sketchbook. He drew me a patented Harvey Pekar, crude stick figure in it with a word balloon “Come Back and See Us Some Time —Harvey Pekar.”

Well, I’m off to Ohio to film little girls dancing. So let’s close out the week with the coolest kids on the internet and their re-make of Silence of the Lambs. They’re fans of the site, and I see a little of myself in these fellas. When I was the age of these kids, I was remaking Batman in my bedroom with a Beta-Max camera. My friend Joe was making Abortion Videos with Action Figures. This continues that fantastic spirit. All you need to know is in their description: “This video took us days to make…During buffalo bills make up session…he tortures his victim with dolls…..Inspector Chubbs interrogates Hannibal…….and Hannibal winds up having the best dinner of his life.”

Also, they relentlessly call the kid from Snowman Domination fat, and I don’t know if it’s wrong of me to laugh, or why he puts up with it, but…it’s kind of awesome. I love that kid.

Coach Tucker and Carolyn loved to travel, and always sent me postcards from locales around the country during the summer. They kind of kept us accountable to keep running when we really wanted to be sleeping in late and trying to score beer…these postcards let us know he was thinking of the upcoming season, and we should be too. This one’s from Dallas. Reading RHT’s handwriting was an art in itself…but after a few years, you picked up on it. It was like a secret language only our team could read. It says “Thanks for helping at the fair.” We got to sit in the heat together and park cars for the Rushville Demo derby, to raise money for the track. It was one of the longest, dryest, hottest days ever. It really sucked, actually. But he and I got to talk about movies for hours on end. He loved movies, especially Sci-Fi, nerdy stuff like Star Wars and Dune. We definitely had that in common. He was the first to tell me they were making new Star Wars movies, and I was actually excited at the time. He had recently went to see “Striptease” with Demi Moore, which was controversial at the time, and I thought this was hilarious in itself. I don’t think I was old enough to see an R movie in 1996. He said the movie wasn’t any good, but Demi Moore had “bazongas the size of basketballs for some reason” and then eyes got really big and he puffed his cheeks out. We laughed about that all afternoon. The end of the card says “Be careful of heat, use belt at pool. Jog with Stear, Dustin and Caleb. —Coach rht” He had bought a special belt used for training runners in a pool. It was a very odd device, and we rarely used it because we were shiftless and lazy and couldn’t be bothered. We couldn’t even figure it out how to use it for a few weeks. I think we did cannonballs with it on. Coach always wrote his initials in three lowercase letters like that. Kind of humble, in a way. That was his trademark.

Click on article for full screen view…

I was going through old clippings and photos, thinking back about Coach Tucker. I’m working on a longer piece, but I’d just like to share some bits and pieces for now.

Click on image for full-screen view…

This is something a few of us in the industry have known for a while, but there was a Road House video game in the works at some point!

As you know, I’m kind of a fan.

Unfortunately, Kotaku doesn’t show any images from the game, like this promotional poster used to pitch the game to Konami. I’m one of a few people who own one of these but I can’t tell you how I got it. Here it is in my office. Jealous?:

From all of me to all of you, Merry Chris Ward-mas. I’ll return after the holidays…

I had a whole post ready to go tonight. It was hilarious. And YouTube deleted the video so I have to redo the whole thing. But you know what? I’m going to see The Pixies tonight, and they’re playing Doolittle in its entirety, so I really couldn’t care less about anything in the entire world right now. Here’s some Pixies videos. Watch ‘em this weekend, download Doolittle, watch the documentary Loud Quiet Loud, and then be jealous of me later on. Frank Black looks like he could be your landlord in some of these videos. Compared to the done-up bands today, it’s kind of an exciting look.

If you appear on the $25,000 Pyramid, and Dick Clark gives you the category “Famous names that begin with the letter ‘C’”, what’s going through your mind? Is it the mantra “Don’t be racist…don’t be racist…don’t be racist…“? If it is, you probably should run off the set before this happens to you.

You’re going to have to excuse the following video, because I’m in it and not the most comfortable or likable person in front of a camera. But dear lord…just watch.

THE KICKER:

“Things that are douchebags, ummm… things that reveal their true nature…ummm…Things the audience suddenly turns on with low-ambiance boos…PASS PASS!”

I did a little research on the “celebrity” trying to get the NAACP Image Award here, and guess who he is? He’s actor Henry Polic II. And if that still doesn’t mean anything, consider that the show he was known for at the time was….

WEBSTER. FUCKING WEBSTER.

So I wonder if he considers Webster “that old black show?” Hell, I wonder if he considers Webster a “black show” at all. Does anyone? He must, because The Cosby Show would be “that NEW Black show.” The one he subconsciously knows is about to unseat his show. “Ruin his neighborhood,” if you will. One thing’s for sure, when George Papadapolis catches wind of this, it’s bang, zoom to the moon with this guy in a very special episode of Kicking Henry Polic’s Ass!

Henry Polic II went on to appear in one episode of Saved By The Bell, and Bill Cosby…well, Bill Cosby went on to have the number one Black show in America, until the number one Yellow show came along. Wait, I mean The Simpsons! I’m talking about The Simpsons!!! It was just a slip! Oh god, my career is over!!!

More offensive: racism, or these sweaters?

My high school reunion is this weekend, and I was going through some old crap and found these incredible notes. I butted heads in a pretty big way with my art teacher my Senior year. This stemmed from the fact that I was a normal, immature high school kid going through typical issues (heightened by a sudden obsession with Nine Inch Nails and dark and macabre art instead of my typical goofy-humored stuff), and my teacher went batshit insane right before she retired (something that was relayed to me by some other teachers years and years later over a giant bottle of wine, which felt like the coolest victory ever.) I still get a kick out of these.

This woman is the reason I got out of art and into writing. I owe her a “thank you,” actually, and I hope she’s doing fine now. Had I pursued art—which is what I wanted to do since I was five years old—I would have undoubtedly been proven not good enough once I hit college. I might have improved some, but I don’t think I would have had what it takes to make a career out of something like that. That happens in a small town: you’re encouraged and not given any truly constructive criticism for 12 years and then, when you leave, you learn the hard way.

This makes me sound a lot more badass than I actually was. This lady also accused me of bringing a gun—a fucking GUN—on an Art Club trip to Chicago, and even lied saying that I refused to let her search my bag. The principal, bless his heart, laughed this off and believed me. That’s a pretty serious claim.

To be fair, the rules aren’t for me. She’s got that right. This also reminds me that I’ve gone soft over the years. My antics in art class got my name stricken from the record as Art Club class president. That’s right: if someone goes back through my high school’s records in 1999, doing an investigative report on the legacy of Art Club presidents, they’ll find a hole where my name used to be, and begin a harrowing, John Grisham-style adventure to find the root of the cover-up.

Shown: Sexiest man alive, future loose cannon. And that PROFILE! Dammmmnn!!! GET some!