Bob and Harv's Comics [Paperback]

Harvey Pekar (Author), Robert Crumb (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 5, 1996

Gathered here are the collected works of the titans of adults comics — legendary underground cartoonist R. Crumb and the "high priest of comic-book naturalism" (Newsweek) Harvey Pekar. The comic collision of these underground luminaries is funny, obsessive, ever-so-slightly neurotic, but always biting and honest.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Both Robert Crumb (Self-Loathing Comics), who defined the underground comics of the 1960s, and Harvey Pekar (Cancer Year), whose autobiographical comic (American Splendor) launched an entire movement in the 1980s, have transformed American alternative comics. Four Walls Eight Windows is releasing Bob & Harv's Comics, a collection of their pithy collaborations (Crumb illustrates Pekar's stories) that also shows how superbly suited they are to interpret each other's work.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Pekar's American Splendor is hands down the best adult comic book and maybe the best comic book, period, in the U.S. It is full of the adventures of Pekar himself--a genuine working-class intellectual, a clerk in a government hospital who on the side writes about jazz, the comics, and authors whose work deserves renewed attention. He writes and storyboards the stories and recruits professional comics artists to draw them. The most famous of these is his longtime friend, Robert Crumb, dean of the 1960s "underground" comics artists and subject of the extravagantly praised documentary film Crumb (1994). The touchstones for the formal qualities and attitudes of these cartoon-illustrated slices-of-life are the stories of such urban impressionists as Grace Paley and Meyer Liben and the films of the French new wave directors, especially Jean-Luc Godard and Eric Rohmer. Pekar and Crumb don't derive from those artists, however; they are their peers. Ray Olson

Product Details

• Paperback: 86 pages
• Publisher: Running Press; First Printing edition (November 5, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568581017
• ISBN-13: 978-1568581019
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #407,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection, September 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Bob and Harv's Comics (Paperback)

This is a terrific collection of Harvey Pekar and Bob Crumb's collaborations throughout the years. In my opinion, Crumb did some of his best work with Pekar.

The only note of caution, most of these comics are in the other Harvey Pekar AMERICAN SPLENDOR collections. So, there really isn't anything new here, other than the introductions and a few covers.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars American Splendor, Crumb style, May 21, 2003

By 

Bob Cronin (Belmont, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bob and Harv's Comics (Paperback)

While Harvey Pekar's work on his autobiographical comic "American Spendor" is always interesting, it's at it's best when he is working with his friend and collaborator Robert Crumb. The two met in Cleveland in the 1960's and have been working together and trading records ever since. American Splendor generally features multiple comic artists, but this collection is comprised entirely of stories illustrated by Crumb.

The stories are almost entirely about Pekar's everyday life, his trial and tribulations in Cleveland. He writes about eating dinner, losing a book, exchanges at work or at the market, freeloading friends... in fact, one of the most entertaining segments in this book is a series concerning Freddy, Harv's freeloading pal. The anger he provokes in the admitted cheapskate Pekar is hilarious. There are also several stories where Crumb himself figures as a main character. For those with an interest in Crumb's life and background, there is much to learn in these Harv and Bob stories.

Pekar is an important comic writer and "American Splendor" is definitely worth checking out. For the uninitiated, this book is a good place to start. Crumb has an excellent approach to the material and really brings it to life, giving us a real sense of the people and personalities at work here. His AS covers are also notable. American Splendor fans should realize that much, if not all, of this material appears elsewhere in The Complete Crumb Comics and in the now out-of-print American Splendor Anthologies. Of course, it all originally appeared in the American Splendor comic books, which Pekar self published annually since 1976 and can be difficult to find.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The material is good, but you may have seen it before, February 15, 2007

By 

A Reader from Chicago (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bob and Harv's Comics (Paperback)

I am giving it three stars as a warning because of the fact that if you have "The New American Splendor Anthology" and "American Splendor: The Life and Times of Harvey Pekar" you will be wasting your money on this 86 pages of comics you have mostly seen before. And those other two are a much better deal for the money. This book is only good if you want a collection of exclusively Crumb's stuff. You can think of this as being Crumb's stuff drawn from those other two books. Get the other two books instead, unless you love Crumb and hate the other artists.