Coming soon from Top Shelf and Zip Comics:
Read all about it right here. Although the promotional image above says otherwise, the Amazon entry for Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland indicates that the book will be released in March 2012. Amazon also states that the completed graphic novel will be 128 pages in length and will be published in hardcover.
In an interview with Forbidden Planet International published online in January of this year, editor Jeff Newelt describes Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland as “1/3 history of Cleveland, 1/3 Pekar autobio, 1/3 biographical sketches of prominent Cleveland ‘characters.’ It was fully written before Harvey passed, and Joseph had already drawn 20 pages.” And the result? In his introduction, Alan Moore says that Cleveland is “[o]ne of the very greatest works by that unique and irreplaceable American voice, the truly splendorous Harvey Pekar… graced by the impeccable and poignant artistry of Joseph Remnant.”
To give you a more concrete idea of the type of artwork you can expect to find in Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, here are links to seven previous collaborations between Harvey Pekar and Joseph Remnant, collaborations that were published as part of SMITH Magazine’s Pekar Project: 1) Autodidact; 2) Back in the Day; 3) Legendary Vienna; 4) Muncie, Indiana; 5) Muncie, Indiana Part II; 6) Reciprocity; and 7) Sweeping Problem. There’s also a 4-page preview of Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland on the SMITH Magazine site.
Now, it is a truth factionally acknowledged that the quality of Pekar’s comics tended to rise or fall according to the skillfulness or ineptitude of the artists that our man was able to attract or conscript to illustrate his scripts. But if you thought Pekar’s collaborations with R. Crumb were the best that American Splendor had to offer, I expect that you will be looking forward to Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, illustrated by Joseph Remnant, as much as I am!
Ragged Claws Network 