The Quitter

Anyone who reads a lot of comics or graphic novels is familiar with Harvey Pekar, of American Splendor fame.  For those who don't, I'll bring you up to speed: Pekar is a now late-middle age Jewish guy of Polish immigrants who has lived in Cleveland, Ohio his whole life.  He became famous through his friendship with Robert Crumb, illustrator-king of underground comics, who at the time they met was just a 19 year-old-kid with a similar obsession for Jazz records.  Pekar was a regular reader of comics but saw a distinct gap between the traditional storyline of the genre at the time (i.e.: mostly superhero comics) and wished there was something more for the "everyman."  So he crudely drew some storyboards that he thought were funny and honest and appealing.  Crumb, who at this time was already an obsessive pen-and-ink man and worked for the American Greeting Card Company, agreed to illustrate them.  That was the beginning of American Splendor, which went on to great success.  In 2003 a movie with the same title, starring Paul Giamatti as Pekar, came out to great critical acclaim and shot Pekar and his curmudgeon ways even farther into the limelight.  It also delved into his marriage to wife Joyce, his adopted daughter, and his long career as a federal file clerk.

Quitter tells us the back story.  For the first time we get a focused look into the anxiety and loneliness and distinctly immigrant experience of Pekar's background.  We meet his uptight, depressive mother and hardworking, unemotional father.  He explores the feelings of isolation he had, being the only Polish Jew in a distinctly poor, Black neighbourhood.  He tells us his history of street fighting and remarkable talent for sports (that you would never guess from his later work).  His shyness around girls.  His self-loathing.  His obsessional interests in whatever had taken his fancy: sport statistics, comic books, boxing, Jazz music.  We also get to see his young friendships and his failures at day jobs (including a one-week stint in the Navy) while he triumphed as an unpaid Jazz writer.

Most importantly, we can see how his intelligence, talent and struggle to be a writer was greatly thwarted by his family's lack of faith in his non-traditional interests; and his undiagnosed mental illness caused him severe self-doubt, depression, and self-sabotage.

For all the truth of the title, we can see why Pekar would consider himself a "quitter," he gives up on himself far more often then he follows through with any of his ideas or dreams or vocations.  But the reality is that on the surface he may be a "quitter" but in the long run of his life he has stuck by a difficult marriage and unplanned fatherhood, survived fame and cancer, and maintained his file clerk job for 30 years.  So his rocky beginning does not necessarily belie his true nature.  As usual, Pekar always sees the short end of the stick.