Well, I might have wanted to start my blog on a cheerier note but in a way it is fitting that the first post is a commemoration of the one and only Harvey Pekar, who died on July 12th. Fitting in that, partly through his influence, I am now working on my own autobio comics under the title Ticking Boy. I came to Harvey’s work in the mid 1990s as I searched further into the independent comics scene to find something that spoke to me, something I could relate to. I found a truth in auto/biographical comics that I couldn’t find anywhere else. My true-life-stories-in-comics-form apprenticeship started with Dennis Eichorn’s Real Stuff and I couldn’t get enough of that autobio thing. Discovering Pekar was a joy and if you haven’t picked anything up I recommend Bob & Harv’s Comics, a collection of his American Splendor strips with Robert Crumb on drawing duties. I reckon it is the best Splendor collection out there and it’s where I nicked the strip for this post. Oh, ya gots to check out the movie too!
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