click to enlarge

Online comics are the designated area for amateur creators to try their hand at sequential art, and be able to gain an audience regardless of quality. Thus, the vast majority of online comics are void of aesthetic vision, or any vision at all for that matter. Coupled with the problems that face the Internet in general (waiting time, the hopeless feeling you get when staring at your computer screen for hours, etc.), online comics are not enjoyable at all, in my personal experience.

Until now, that is. I was told of Harvey Pekar's (American Splendor) short storyin The Word(an online magazine featuring quite a few cartoons, although few are on par with this effort), and immediately gave it a shot. Pekar is a personal favorite of mine, and those of you who aren't familiar with him are missing out on one of the top 10 talents ever to work in comics. He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with R. Crumb and the book-length story Our Cancer Year(, co-written with Joyce Brabner.

Since the '70s, Pekar has made his mark in his self-published (well, Dark Horse publishes it now, I suppose) magazine American Splendor, which is the chronicle of Pekar's life, a description which doesn't distinguish it from all the other auto-bio comics out there. What's great about American Splendor is the fact that Pekar is a regular working-class guy, like the rest of us. He has to pay the bills, and holds down a 9-to-5 hospital file clerk job. In his free time, he writes American Splendor, and passes it on to top artists (most notably R. Crumb), who illustrate it.

The reason American Splendor is so beautiful, and so important, is that Pekar doesn't pretend to be anything more than he is -- a regular man -- and is then able to write stories about books he likes, friends spending the weekend at his house, small happenings at works, jokes he hears, and small daily adventures that happen to everyone. What sets Pekar apart from the rest of us is the fact that he is an extraordinary observer, who can find poignancy in the mundane. He's also a bit of a philosopher, even if he might not think so, and if you read his dialogue closely, there are some great truths to be learned.

"The Terminal Years" works on so many levels. First of all, it works as a Harvey Pekar story, and that alone is worth the time it takes to read it. Harvey writes the story during a lull at work, and talks about insecurities he has concerning retirement and money. Concerns we all have. Gary Dumm illustrates Pekar dynamically, as his face stares toward us, as we read his laments about his friends moving away from Cleveland. Pekar continues to talk about why he writes American Splendor, the effect the weather has on his mood, the sad state of comics, magazine editors ignoring his work, and finally, distracting himself from the big picture. And not a word is painful to read. I once described Pekar's writing as a relative telling you a story. That's the best way I can describe it.

It also works on a technical level. Using Flash, the images in the comic do not suffer the way most scanned images do. Also, for my computer at least, the images appeared very quickly, and when I was done with one page, I clicked an arrow, and the new page quickly faded in. I wasn't transferred to another page. The image I was looking at dissolved and a new one appeared. It was perfect. It looked great. I loved it.

This is how Web comics should look. If Web comics are the next step, let's hope they can be half as good as this. It would be great if they were, because, hey it's free! And you can find them easily. Such is the case with this one. Just go to http://www.word.com/features99/pekar/.

Congratulations, Harvey. You've proved yourself completely comfortable in a new medium. Bring us another one -- and soon.

Copyright © 2000 Austin English All Rights Reserved

Austin English was born in San Francisco, where he continues to reside to this day. His interviews with alternative cartoonists have appeared throughout the Internet, most notably at www.indymagazine.com. He also has a self-published mini-comic titled The Tenth Frame available for just $1.00. You can contact him at three1145@aol.com, or P.O. Box 460584 San Francisco, CA 94146-0584.