Harvey Pekar

For the past couple of days, I keep remembering off and on that Harvey Pekar is no longer with us. I never met him, or even saw him in person. However, the openness of his books, the humor, the sincerity, raw reality and the sometimes bleakness, you really feel like you get to know him.

The world of comics and the world in general will be a little less interesting without him and updates of American Splendor in it. Here's just a handful of people and places around the web who are remembering "our man" and his work.

Allison Bechdel

Jeff Smith

Anthony Bourdain

Tom Spurgeon

The New York Times

Cleveland

My New, Old Neighbor

Now that I'm doing the stay-at-home dad thing (on top of illustration duties), I've been watching a good bit of PBS kids. Mainly while feeding Romy. I love me some Arthur. I love me some Caillou. Sesame Street. And most of all, I am totally loving the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood reruns.

When I was a kid, I didn't take well to "the Neighborhood" (what Mr. Rogers called the show). I knew enough to know the show was supposed to make a kid feel good, but it made me feel depressed. That shack of a house with the blue and gray backgrounds. Mr. Rogers' piercing stare. Mr. McFeely's creepy hairdo. Those hideous curtains. Not to mention that horrifying Lady Elaine puppet. (Getting the flavor of the kind of kid I was?).

Now that I'm all growed up, the show has taken on a whole new meaning. I feel like I get it more, now that I'm an adult--backwards as that may be. I can look past all the superficial stuff on the set and really take it in. Everything about it is so, so great. I love the Neighborhood of Make-Believe (I actually always had a soft spot for ol' Trolley). And I love when Mr. Rogers goes out and visits factories and athletes and musicians and artists. Love that stuff. And I love the little model houses and town that show up at the end credits. And now I know more about the man himself. What a true saint and hero he was. I wish I were just half as good as he was. Maybe that's something to live up to.

Anyhow, I saw this Mr. Rogers post on kids lit writer/guru and friend, Esme Raji Codell's blog the other day (his b-day was March 20) and it got me all stirred up.

And I saw, there, this great MENTAL FLOSS link of Mr. Rogers anecdotes. He was very well-loved.

My favorite, from that list, is this:

According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”

Dang. Kills me.

And if you're really feeling the love of ol' Fred Rogers now, by all means go read this amazing bit of editorial lit written by Tom Junod for ESQUIRE, November 1998.


Long live the sweetness, goodwill, spirit and memory of Mr. Rogers!

"It's such a good feeling to know you're alive!"

But that Lady Elaine. Still creeps me out.

Richard Thompson is GOOD.

One of my xmas/hanukkah gifts this year was a recently published, collected comic strip by Richard Thompson called CUL DE SAC. I first heard about Thompson and CUL DE SAC on one of my fave comics news sources, The Comics Reporter. It was a while ago. Since then, I've peeped in on Thompson's blog time and again, and I've occasionally looked in on his strip online. It's syndicated, but not all over the place. It should be. ALL over the place. This is the best mainstream strip I can remember since CALVIN AND HOBBES. It's hilarious, super-smart, and the best drawn thing I've seen in a freakin while. Bill Watterson even does the foreword on the book, saying pretty much the same stuff. It's sharp, wise, and kid-friendly like PEANUTS or CALVIN, absurd like BLOOM COUNTY, and drawings that'll knock your socks off like Ralph Steadman or somesuch. I really loved when, early on, he was coloring with watercolor. But that stops several pages into the book. I assume he quit to save time and it was probably a pain from a production standpoint.

At the request and permission of no one, I will hereby reproduce some of my favorite strips from this book, starting with the cover (click images to zoom and get a better read).

Dang!

I just finished reading the best interview from Tom Spurgeon (The Comics Reporter) with Julie's and my favorite cartoonist, Lynda Barry. If you're not a fan, well, you gotta be!


Her newest book, WHAT IT IS, was recently published by Drawn and Quarterly. Much of the interview focuses on this, but, there's lots of stuff about her history in comics and recent hardships due to the downsizing and/or selling of the many alt weekly newspapers her comic strip has ran in over these many years. She's awesome. Read this and more here.

Simon James makes good books.

In a recent visit to the local library, combing through the picture books section, I plucked a handful of books by UK-based author/illustrator Simon James. Julie and I already own a copy of his wildly popular BABY BRAINS, but it's some of his older stuff that I really respond to. Not that the BABY BRAINS books ain't great, they're just a little wackier than a few of the cooler, quieter titles from several years back.

I really dig these two: LEON AND BOB and THE BIRDWATCHERS. In general, though, SJ's got a real, real sweet style. Loose pen and ink lines accompanied by very painterly and classically loose watercolors. He's got a great sense of color and his design and composition skills are top notch too.

I found this UK gallery website that, looks like, represents his original art sales. At first glance I thought the prices were extremely reasonable. Then, I remembered how the dollar's in the toilet and it'd take almost two bucks to make a Brit's pound. Still, tho, some good prices. Someday, maybe.

You asked for it, You got it!

Another video of the inimitable Bob Dylan, again at his best. Just kidding, actually, about the "asking for it" part. No one here has asked for more Dylan, but I found this on YouTube and thought you should see it. (A favorite song, a timeless performance, and a rather disgusting look.) Vids are a quick blog post. Besides, things are kinda hectic right now. Julie and I are prepping to go to New York, where she'll receive a top award for GET WELL SOON (read where I blogged about it back here). I'm in full throes of sketches for my first picture book offering as illustrator AND author. And a couple of Euonymus shrubs in our front yard have been all but devoured by an annoying parasite called "scale". Trying to figure that out.

So ride this out with me and feast your eyes and your ears on some "Idiot Wind."

"Here's your throat back, thanks for the loan."

I love everything about this clip. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Jack Prelutsky

I was just looking through the many websites I have bookmarked and came across, again, the awesome site of the awesome poet Jack Prelutsky. Julie and I saw Mr. Prelutsky speak at one of those Anderson's Bookshop Children's Lit Breakfasts (two years back, I think). His poems are freaking great and hilarious, and so is he, naturally. In 2006, he was, in fact, named the first ever Children's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation.

Anyhow, after being impressed by his Anderson's gig, I looked him up on the web and found he had an equally great and hilarious website. It's chock full of excellently raw computer drawing, too-cool animation, and sweet sound effects (make sure your sound's on). Be sure to check out one of my fave poems on the site, "It's Raining Pigs and Noodles".


I would LOVE to illustrate something of his someday. I think our styles would compliment each other?

Doctor De Soto In Motion

I was just surfing the web. Making the rounds on ebay, blogs, amazon, etc. I went by youtube and for some reason typed "William Steig" into search. Came up with this awesome and very faithful 'toon of Steig's great Doctor De Soto. Who knew?!

sempé

One of the freebies I scored at ALA last weekend is this awesome Nicholas pin from over at the Phaidon booth. Nicholas is a series of children's books drawn by the great French cartoonist, Jean-Jacques Sempé. I first came onto Sempé by way of the many covers he illustrates for the New Yorker. Then, a year or so ago, I discovered Phaidon was reprinting many of his books in English translation. So, when I can, I've been scooping them up and thoroughly enjoying along the way.

Over the holidays, my Mom gave me a collection called EVERYTHING IS COMPLICATED. Here's one of the single panel cartoons from this one that I found particularly funny (it's full of single panel as well as strips). And it was one of the easier ones to scan. Some run pretty close to the gutter. His linework is amazing. It can be very fluid, very loose at times, but then at other times, extremely tight and anally detailed. Vive le France!

Bringing It All Back Home

Been trying to/thinking bout scoring one of these for some time now. It's probably the most famous image by graphic design legend Milton Glaser. This poster was folded and enclosed in the sleeve of the Bob Dylan Greatest Hits album released in 1967-ish. You can usually find the poster/album combo in decent condition on ebay for around fifty bucks. I was fortunate enough to grab mine for just under 30. I'd actually bought one before that was supposed to be in good condition, but when I got it, the poster had a good tear down at the bottom. Seller graciously refunded. This one, said to be mint, still has a few signs of wear. Guess it's the nature of how it came and the age and all. Probably hard to find one in real "mint."

Anyhow, this poster is so beautiful and on a few levels for me. It's a great illustration and idea (that freakin hair). I love that it was done by Glaser (my design chops coming out here) and the simple tho groovy/futuristic type and image combo is too cool. Plus, of course, I'm a Dylan freak. Took several weeks to get here (shipper was in Hawaii). Glad to finally see this in person. Now, how to frame?