PEKAR, HARVEY 457
standing under an awning while making an unarmed Palestinian boy stand in the rain
and answer their questions, Sacco embeds himself with the people of Palestine. Indeed,
the absence of Palestinian leaders or offi cial spokespersons in his story is also indicative
of his attempts to present the everyday lived experiences of Palestinians.
Yet, more than a narrative that seeks to upset in some small way a very large imbal-
ance, Palestine is also a call to action. When interviewees ask Sacco what good his words
or the words of supposedly pro-Palestinian people in the West are, he has little to say
in return. Th e question is directed not only at Sacco, but at the reader who has—like
the voyeur-cum-vulture Sacco—consumed the grief, pain, and suff ering of Palestinians.
It is not enough, Sacco implies, and the Palestinians in the narrative make clear, to feel
sympathy for the Palestinian cause; the point is to take concrete actions to infl uence
Western governments—and in particular the American government without which the
Israeli state could probably not survive—to approach the confl ict in a way that recog-
nizes the rights of Palestinians to land and to humanity. Th ere can be no solution, Sacco
notes, “until this central fact—Israeli occupation—is addressed as an issue of interna-
tional law and basic human rights.”
Selected Bibliography: Sacco, Joe. Palestine. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2001.
Noaman G. Ali
PEKAR, HARVEY (1939–). Harvey Pekar is a prominent comic book writer and mem-
oirist as well as a widely published jazz and book critic. Born and raised in Cleveland,
Ohio, Pekar lives in neighboring Cleveland Heights with his third wife, Joyce Brabner,
and their adopted daughter. He is best known for his autobiographical series American
Splendor (1976–), which provided the basis for a 2003 award-winning fi lm adaptation
of the same name. He has also written a series of nonfi ction graphic novels, includ-
ing Our Cancer Year (1994, with Frank Stack and Joyce Brabner), Th e Quitter (2005,
with Dean Haspiel), Macedonia (2006, with Heather Roberson and Ed Piskor), and
Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History (2008, with Gary Dumm, Paul
Buhle and others). Pekar also worked with Buhle to produce two volumes designed to
give voice to working class and oppositional cultural perspectives: Studs Terkel’s Work-
ing: A Graphic Adaptation (2009) and Th e Beats (2009). Maintaining his interest in
music, Pekar wrote the libretto for Leave Me Alone! , a jazz opera that premiered at
Oberlin College in 2009.
Pekar was inspired to publish American Splendor as a result of his friendship with
underground comix legend Robert Crumb , who contributed artwork to the fi rst and
subsequent issues. Th e occasionally published comics anthology centers on Pekar’s life
and in particular his experiences working as a fi le clerk in a large VA hospital in Cleve-
land, from which he retired in 2001. While Pekar self-published American Splendor for
many years, DC Comics assumed the role of publisher from 2006 to 2008 via its Vertigo
imprint. Th e list of artists who have contributed to American Splendor over the years—
including Alison Bechdel, Chester Brown , Eddie Campbell , Hunt Emerson, Bob
