Back in 2005, I was fortunate enough to have met the legendary Harvey Pekar. It was Wondercon 2005, and his book, American Splendor: Our Movie Year had recently came out. There were other greats at the con that year– Marv Wolfman, David Lapham, JMS, Brian K. Vaughn… But right when I entered the Moscone Center, I looked through the program and searched where Harvey was set up, and made my way to his booth right away. When I found him, I was surprised, yet glad to see him sitting there, elbow on the table, fist underneath his cheek, waiting.
When I got to him, he greeted me warmly. I dug out his recent book from my backpack and asked if he can sign a copy. He kindly obliged and asked if there was any more for him to sign?
***
“You sure you don’t have anythin’? ‘Cause I’ll sign anythin’.”
“Aww man, I wish I brought my copy of Our Cancer Year and issue 12, where the cover has you tellin’ off Letterman. But I didn’t want to be that fan that held up the line and asks you to sign lotsa books.”
“You have that copy?”
“Yeah, I hunted it down after I saw your movie. I remember the first time I saw your movie… I was having trouble sleeping in the middle of the night. I can hear the cash register and coins dropping from my job in my sleep. And so finally around 4am, I randomly popped on your movie. And it was the first time I saw it. By the time I finished it, I had to go to school, but it was okay. I felt at ease after.”
“Well I’m glad you liked it. Here. Take this.”
“Aww thank you so much, man.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“You take it easy.”
“Hang in there.”
***
I walked away with my copy of American Splendor: Our Movie Year signed, and a free copy of Our Cancer Year signed. I’m glad that I can honestly say that Harvey Pekar wasn’t only a comic book legend, but most importantly and most simply, he was a good man.
