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	Harvey Pekar is the creator of the autobigraphical comic book series American Splendor *Mr. Pekar will speak after a screening of the film American Splendor* which will start at 6pm on Wednesday, April 14 at the Met Theater** [Buy Tickets]

HARVEY PEKAR

Before there was reality television and Jerry Seinfeld, there was Harvey Pekar. And Harvey Pekar knows that ordinary life is pretty complex stuff. For over 30 years, his autobiographical comic book series American Splendor has elevated day-to-day existence into art. Now the HBO Films/Fine Line Feature film about his life, American Splendor, has won the Sundance International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, Cannes International Film Festival Fipresci Award, and the National Society of Film Critic's Best Picture Award and brings Pekar to the masses, solidifying his place as a counter-culture hero. At the podium, he is mundane yet poetic, honest and profound and shares his unique views in a not-to-be-missed multi-media presentation.

The inauspicious ascent of Pekar began in the halls of the VA Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked full-time as a file clerk from 1966 to 2001. In his spare time, beginning in 1972, Pekar has written and self-published the comic book series “American Splendor,” while his friends—icons in their own right including R Crumb, Frank Stack and Joe Stacco—illustrate his self-professed “rants. American Splendor’s first-person account of Pekar’s down-trodden life ranges from the sublime—like chatting with co-workers, going to the market and taking road trips—to the profound, including adopting a daughter and his 1990 brush with cancer. From a stint as a David Letterman recurring guest to a prolific career as a jazz music and book critic, Pekar’s storied existence is always interesting—even when it’s just about eating a piece of fresh-baked bread.