American Splendor DVD

Description

The one that inspired the podcast!! Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, this biographical comedy drama by documentary makers Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Sherman fuses live-action film, archive footage and animation to tell the story of comic book writer Harvey Pekar (played in the live action sections of the film by Paul Giamatti). Harvey leads a dull, monotonous life, working as a file clerk at a local veterans’ hospital. At home, he fills his days by reading, writing and listening to jazz, and compulsively collects books and records which fill the walls and floors of his apartment. Inspired by the work of his friend Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak), Harvey writes American Splendor, a comic book series about the minor trials and tribulations of everyday life, and gradually attains celebrity status as his work gains initially a cult and then a mainstream following. Despite his newfound success, it is his meeting with sardonic comic store owner Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis) that changes his life most profoundly. The two marry within days of their first meeting, and go on to co-write a book-length comic based on their life together, Our Cancer Year.