Harvey Pekar - City Arts & Lectures: On Art & Politics 2006 April 17, 2006

In conversation with Josh Kornbluth
Monday, April 17, 2006

The graphic novels of Harvey Pekar relay the drama of daily life, from the humdrum to the heroic, the grim to the grand. Pekar is best known for his autobiographical slice-of-life comic book series ?American Splendor,? which has been published on an annual basis since 1976. He adapted the series into a film of the same name starring Paul Giamatti as Pekar, which received the Sundance International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes, and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Cleveland, Ohio native is also a prolific music and book critic and he worked as a full-time hospital file clerk from 1966 until 2001. In Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story, Pekar captures the exuberant, ironic, sometimes sad, and often funny life of a man named Michael Malice, a Ukranian-born serial temp worker with an I.Q. of 160. Told through Pekar?s entertaining and thoughtful perspective, this true story follows Malice as he wrestles with his exceptional gifts in the confines of ordinary life.

In his smart autobiographical monologues, including Ben Franklin: Unplugged, Red Diaper Baby, and Love & Taxes, Josh Kornbluth explores the wild and eccentric characters of his world ? including himself. A writer, director, and performer, Kornbluth chronicled his short career as a temp worker in Haiku Tunnel. In fall 2005, KQED-TV in San Francisco premiered ?The Josh Kornbluth Show,? an offbeat, intelligent, and hilarious interview show.