thank you boys uh our next guest tonight works as a file clerk at a cleveland hospital
he also writes comic books which deal with his day-to-day pains and pleasures
and this is an anthology of the nine of those comics it's entitled american splendor from off
the streets of cleveland folks please say hello to harvey pekar harvey come out here
you wouldn't be calling me curious you know i mean i met you before the show you know and uh
i meant curious in a fascinating way oh all right a man who has has the presence of one
who is quite fascinated okay because i mentioned before the show i thought you're a pretty nice
guy you know yeah well i think that made him maybe you know he might i might be uh nursing a viper in
my [ __ ] you know something like that a little defensive about this huh yeah i am waiting for
those cleveland jokes so go ahead all right settle down harvey yeah all right now uh now let's let's
explain to folks who may not be familiar with your work what it is you do here exactly you have
uh comic books about you in your daily life in cleveland that's right and are they embellished at
all or is it pretty much factual it's all true all true yeah and how long have you been doing this
well writing in comics yeah well for about 14 years now that's uh you know but i've been
publishing my own stuff for about 11. yeah and you also have a regular job in cleveland working at a
hospital that's that's right yeah that's right now it seems to me that you're sick yes hating
the sick well that's certainly noble work thank you thank you but it seems to me harvey that uh
you have a very successful career here this is being published by a major publishing company
double day that's right and and why why do you maintain the day job to make a living
i don't make a living as a writer yeah i've been writing for many years david
maybe more years than you've been alive no and i uh yeah i know i know that my youthful
appearance belies you know my actual age yeah but uh i've been around for a little bit but
i have a feeling though if you wanted to you could probably get by on what you make selling
your your work because i know people are after you to write other things and you're publishing this
anthology who what people what people what are you talking about well i i know i know that you
you you know that uh i know showbiz phony i'm telling the truth now you're on man now you can't
i don't want to make you look bad you mean to tell me that other people haven't
contacted you about writing literary criticism for various publications
well i mean you know like you could make a living as a writer what are you talking what do you mean
how do you know all that stuff i can't and i've been writing i've been writing since
i was 19 years old man i'm now 47. for nationally you know you know believe me
i'm eight years older than you man i don't look at man you look eight years older than
me man you look bad i look bad you look bad compared to me i look bad compared to you
this is mine not that much but it's all mine i don't rely on any you know prosthesis or
anything yeah that's a technical have you thought about a decaffeinated coffee
next thing you know it's gonna be you know like your analysis no no no come on now but i'm serious
you have the magazine yeah make them look like all right you can't make a living i can't make
a living and i can't make a living as a writer but see i think maybe and this is only me conjecturing
here that what you're unwilling to get you don't want to lose the daily activity in the
daily contact with ordinary people that's right so it's not so much the money yeah it's not so much
somebody briefed you on me it's it's not something you're a writer it's it's not so much that you
you can't get by without the day job you just you like the contact with the everyday people buy
i can't what do you want you know like when i was writing for dominion i was getting
like four bucks for a record review okay a lot of people i write for i get nothing
i wrote i finally had a book review in the new york times i got 250 for it okay
i shouldn't have said that okay probably queer myself with the tower
okay now let's all right let's go on to other matters you've proven your point and i'm sorry
if i touched the source no it's all right okay i'm a big man i can shrug it off all right now good
um now you the the the people you work with appear as characters in your in your work now do they
know that they're in the comic book most of them do yeah and how do they feel about that they love
it yeah they like it you know what i mean like they like to be on your show they're flattered
about their flattery yeah people like publicity i think it's a big thing you know uh and and uh do
all of them that are in the books know they're in the books or some don't have any idea a few
of them don't most of them do yeah you know yeah i mean uh there's not really you know very very many
unflattering portraits that i've done of people you know i do stuff accurately uh a lot of the
stuff is pretty serious actually uh some of it's humorous um what i'm trying you know i'm focusing
on everyday life you know rather than the highs and lows of people's uh you know like uh lives and
why did you select comic books as a forum for that why couldn't it have been a series
of essays or articles or whatever because it said you know it just goes a lot you know it's
a wonderful medium it's as good as artistic medium as any other medium um it's you know
it's words and pictures and you can do anything you want with words and pictures yeah it doesn't
there's no limit to how good the words can be there's no limit to how good the pictures can be
and uh but it's you know considered a junk medium because it's been always been aimed at a
lowest canon you know common denominator audience sure but um you know i mean it's you know
very you know the potential of it has just you know you know been uh hasn't been hasn't been
exploited to any extent would you do you ever one day see yourself writing a screenplay or writing
something that might reach a broader audience television show do you have you ever written
a tv script no i haven't i would i had a play based on uh my comic book but uh a screenplay or
you know theater play is you know very similar to you know my comic book stuff you know or a
comic book script because what it involves is it involves writing dialogue and it involves you know
instructions either to the actors sure or to the uh yeah sure yeah or to the uh like just
relax relax don't worry about i know i'm not worried about it you don't worry about it i just i
want a job i'm trying i know you've got a job i've got a job we're both very lucky we both have jobs
we got it we got to go no harvey i like you i'm on your side i enjoy the comic books and here
quickly tell us about the little doll my wife made it you're okay and they're and they're uh
am i giving you a hard time no you're not giving me a heart attack no you're not making
me nervous we have to go now and i just wanted to mention that these are for sale yeah they're
made out of your old clothing that's right yeah and what what do these go for 34 bucks
34 34 for this are you cheap you're cheaper than me oh no but
would you pay thirty four dollars for that no but i'm not asking it my wife is oh i should
we'll uh we'll excuse me we'll do a commercial we'll be back
here with harvard you're gonna stick around
of cleveland you mentioned your wife she was making those dolls and i imagine you're
probably selling those are you an easy man to be married to do you think yeah i think
so that the president's my wives haven't thought so how many times you've been
married heard three times three times and uh how long have they lasted first one about 12 years
about three this this one's you know it's like three years of counting you know
i'm a good guy you're a nice guy easy going i think so you're cheap though aren't you
you're cheap i'm a little tight yeah yeah and uh uh you eat a lot of junk food probably yeah
yeah i eat a lot of not a new show though you guys just got liquid stuff out there you don't have
so you came here looking for handouts
you thought somebody would have finger sandwiches or crackers and peppers
donuts or anything this is a big timer listen man you know until even at least
i get donuts you get donuts in cleveland i get you know something man well brokaw i ate all
the donuts i'm sorry but is that right now we only ate fish on the uh on the cover of your
on the cover of your uh anthology here it has a little uh scenario you on a talk show and that's
you and you're saying geez i never nine years ago when i started never imagined being on a talk show
well now you're on a talk show what do you think well first of all that idea came from
a guy who worked with double did the general idea i wrote the dialogue but a guy named mike barson
you know who put this thing over with doubleday thought up that idea yeah so
what do i think about it yeah i don't know man it's a way to you know publicize the thing look
what's the big deal you know i don't want to be a celebrity yeah you don't want to be a celebrity
don't you think that there's problems with venus there's there's problems
there's problems at all levels of existence there's some questions
oh yeah do you have you ever even seen this show harvey i've seen it twice
hey shut up man you're just you're just playing with him you're just playing with
him a little bit yeah it's just so yeah yeah no i look now how are things in cleveland going
what do you mean how are things they're going all right
how are things in indianapolis going pretty well pretty darn well all right they're going pretty
darn well in cleveland i'm doing all right man you know i got a job you got a job did i work with
nice people when do you retire the indians are when do you retire from your job at the hospital
did somebody ask you to ask me no i just want to know because i have a feeling you mentioned you're
cheap the fact you're probably nine years ago when i get a pension yeah you're squirreling away
a lot of money on this book deal but you're you don't want to give up the pension isn't that it
i don't want to give up the pension no man yeah well i worked there 20 years yeah yeah you think
i'm stupid i'm not my man you know maybe last year i made two grand on comics yeah that was
the first year i ever broke even but see harvey you're you're the embodiment of the american dream
look man admittedly i should be the embodiment of the americans well i think you are you're
you're uh a man from the heartland of america who which is you yeah yeah but you just who's
you're with since herb shriner herb schreiner was a terrific man he was a great man yeah many of you
talked different from you and twain he was from a rural area well that's so what we all talk about
i'm just making a point i'm a great admirer of uh you know who i like a lot george aide
george aide yeah you know him yeah i know i've ever been don't know him but i want to
write his stuff sure are you from indiana yeah i'm reading a biography about theodore dreiser
now that i'm supposed to review yeah how much are you making for that i know i'm at 65 bucks
it's the truth folks
all right harvey um they told me to come out and do anything i wanted i don't care man
you know that's that's the same thing nbc tells me every night but i feel pretty much the same
way you do both make it 11. that's all right we're all both doing all right we're doing all right all
right now harvey harvey let me ask you something will you come back and uh talk with us again
sometime or is this it for you yeah i'll come back if you pay for my plane fair my hotel room
how did we get harvey for 100 bucks sure because you're trying to you're
playing jelly roll one come here man no no that's right it's 100 bucks it's 100 bucks
but you also get a chance to advertise uh your doll which goes we'll see how
okay my apologies to drake sather young comedian who was to be with us tonight
we ran out of time gosh i wonder why and uh he'll be back as soon as we can find
an opening from him a very funny young man from seattle also my thanks to tom
brokaw that's all right we'll have donuts next time you come in uh tomorrow uh paulina ports
cover john waters and bonnie raid have a nice night folks thank you very much