Harvey Pekar

David, a struggling comic book creator from Cleveland, spends his days cutting grass and his nights smoking it while desperately trying to keep his superhero fantasies alive. When Robyn, his aspiring fashion-designer girlfriend, makes him a Halloween costume of his original character Apama, it doesn't take David long to hit the streets and begin blundering towards disaster. This comic book Don Quixote is characterized by surreal flourishes, mixing dream, fantasy, and flashbacks that borrow as much from the art house as the comic shop. A midnight movie for superhero fans.

Curmudgeon. Contrarian. Misanthrope. Naysayer. For all the people interviewed in this film, someone has used one of the above words to describe them. What have they done to deserve such labels? Everywhere these men and women go, something is being celebrated; they don’t get what all the celebration is about and they’re compelled to question it.

O balconista de hospital Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti) deixa cair no chão alguns arquivos de óbito e encontra a ficha de um homem que trabalhou a vida inteira como balconista em Cleveland ­ um emprego burocrático, exatamente como o dele. Esse episódio, combinado com o fato de ter visto o seu amigo Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak) se tornar uma pequena celebridade em São Francisco como cartunista, o inspiram a criar a sua própria revista em quadrinhos, chamada American Splendor. A revista, publicada em 1976 com grande sucesso, retratava com realismo o cotidiano do próprio Harvey, um amante compulsivo de jazz e livros. Trata-se de uma biografia.

O balconista de hospital Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti) deixa cair no chão alguns arquivos de óbito e encontra a ficha de um homem que trabalhou a vida inteira como balconista em Cleveland ­ um emprego burocrático, exatamente como o dele. Esse episódio, combinado com o fato de ter visto o seu amigo Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak) se tornar uma pequena celebridade em São Francisco como cartunista, o inspiram a criar a sua própria revista em quadrinhos, chamada American Splendor. A revista, publicada em 1976 com grande sucesso, retratava com realismo o cotidiano do próprio Harvey, um amante compulsivo de jazz e livros. Trata-se de uma biografia.

Toronto filmmaker Alan Zweig analyzes the phenomenon of record collecting.

In the 20th century, no artistic medium in North America with so much potential for creative expression has had a more turbulent history plagued with less respect than comic books. Through animated montages, readings and interviews, this film guides us through the history of the medium from the late 1930s and 1940s with the first explosion of popularity with the superheroes created by great talents like Jack Kirby and hitting its first artistic zenith with Will Eisner's "Spirit". It then shifts to the post war comics world with the rising popularity of crime and horror comics, especially those published by EC Comics under the editorshiop of William B. Gaines until it came crashing down the rise of censorship with the imposition of the Comics Code. In its wake of the devastation of the medium's creative freedom, we also explore EC's defiant survival with the creation of the singular "Mad Magazine" by Harvey Kurtzman.