![\"final](\"\/pictures\/wissewords\/unrepentant-marxist.jpg\")
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\nLouis Proyect remembers Harvey Pekar and what might be his last ever project<\/a>:\n<\/p>\n \nHarvey is not much of a talker\u2013at least he wasn\u2019t that night up at my place. He had a tendency to interject \u201cya knows\u201d into just about every sentence and seemed a bit out of it. So, to pass the time I began telling him about my past. Growing up in the Catskill Mountains resort area when people like Sid Caesar were coming up. Living above the Kentucky Club and hanging out with Jewish boxing legend Barney Ross, a greeter at the club, on the sidewalk where he would show me how to put up my dukes. Joining the SWP and going to Houston where I had a relationship with a woman comrade who had just quit her job as an exotic dancer. Dropping out of the SWP after a Chaplinesque stint as a spot welder. And all the rest.\n<\/p>\n […]<\/p>\n \nSpeaking on my own behalf, I would say that \u201cUnrepentant Marxist\u201d is a terrific book largely due to the incredible work done by artist Summer McClinton. The book is written in a kind of Jewish stand-up comedian style with lots of political observations familiar to anybody who reads this blog, including my evolution since 1981 after coming into contact with Peter Camejo, who is a major presence in the book. Ironically, I had plans to send Harvey a copy of Peter\u2019s memoir in the next day or so. I should add that one of the last times I heard from Harvey was the day that Peter\u2019s obit appeared in the NY Times.\n<\/p>\n \nI have no idea what is going to happen with this book but\u2014believe me\u2014I will not rest until it can be read by the public. I don\u2019t have much use for publishing houses, or any other capitalist firm for that matter, and will make sure to remind them that this book was important to Harvey Pekar, one of the outstanding dissident voices of our era.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \nLouis has mentioned this comix biograpy before, but seeing that page has really whetted my appetite. It’s been interesting if sad to see how widely known Harvey Pekar was, not just for the American Splendor<\/cite> movie or the Letterman appearances, but for his comics. He was a central and singular figure in the development of American comics, his influence undeniable on the generations of “alt comics” cartoonists that came after him, especially those that went the (auto)biographical route. He also proved that you could do serious, personal work in comics as a writer<\/em> in partnership with an artist — or even a second writer, as in Our Cancer Year<\/cite> with Joyce Brabner and Frank Stack as illustrator. All this means he would obviously be remembered by the wider comics community, but appreciations have also sprung out outside of it, as bloggers like Louis and Roy Edroso<\/a> remembered him yesterday.\n<\/p>\n \nAs for myself, I haven’t read as much of his work as I should’ve, apart from the abovementioned Our Cancer Year<\/cite>, not out of lack of interest so much as out of a simple lack of opportunity. For a much more knowledgeable appreciation of Harvey Pekar and his work than I could give, see Tom Spurgeon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Louis Proyect remembers Harvey Pekar and what might be his last ever project: Harvey is not much of a talker\u2013at least he wasn\u2019t that night up at my place. He had a tendency to interject \u201cya knows\u201d into just about every sentence and seemed a bit out of it. So, to pass the time I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1060],"class_list":["post-2310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comix","tag-harvey-pekar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2312,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions\/2312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cloggie.org\/wissewords2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n