Death of a hero
I just opened an e-mail from Arieh:It's with an overwhelming sadness that I share the news of the passing of both Harvey Pekar and Tuli Kupferberg.
May their memory, and their creativity in diverse media, be a blessing to us all, and future generations.Tuli Kupferberg, for those who don't know, was a member of the Fugs, as well as an all-round important figure in the 1960s counter-culture. Harvey Pekar, however, is one of my true heroes.
I first encounted Pekar and his American Splendour comics in a Los Angeles bookstore, Amok (is it still there?), while visiting Jogo perhaps two decades ago. I remember standing there in the store unable to stop reading them. In particular, I loved this story.
He was 70, and suffering from prostate cancer. His battle with cancer had been one of the themes of his recent work.
I will miss him.
Some appreciations: Daily Cross Hatch; Nick Abadzis; Jesse Hamm; Anthony Bourdain; Jeff Smith.
From the Jewish Review of Books:
Comments
I liked this comment from Les:
and, i too, was really saddened by the death of harvey pekar. like you, i discovered his work through a friend back in the early 80s, and i automatically thought that it was some of the best work i had seen in "underground" comics in a decade. actually, he and tuli kupferberg, whose book 1001 ways to beat the draft i read back in 1968, represent a kind of activity associated with some of the best working-class intellectuals/artists that has all but died out here in the states. and i think that's what makes their passing so hard.