American writer Harvey Pekar died July 12 in his Ohio home. He was 70. Pekar is best known for his autobiographical comic series, “American Splendor”, which narrates the everyday life of Pekar and his fellow Cleveland residents. Pekar won the American Book Award in 1987 for his first series of American Splendor. In 2003, the film adaption won the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic films at the Sundance Film Festival. Over the years, several well-respected illustrators collaborated with Pekar on the comic series. The most notable, R. Crumb, was a personal friend who met Pekar while working at American Greetings in Cleveland during the 1960s. He encouraged Pekar to explore comics as a medium for his writing.
     Unlike comics chronicling tales of superheroes, villains and their fantastical battles, Pekar detailed the stories of a different kind of hero: the everyday, working class man who battles depression, loneliness and anxiety while attempting to preserve soul, pride and authenticity. Both ordinary and extraordinary, Pekar will be remembered for his humor, honesty and gift to narrate what he described best as “a series of day-after-day activities that have more influence on a person than any spectacular or traumatic event. It’s the 99 percent of life that nobody ever writes about.”

In a week in which the media focuses on the departure of an athlete from Northeast Ohio, it is the man who R.Crumb called “the soul of Cleveland” who will truly be remembered and missed.