Check put the panel “American (Jewish) Splendor: Celebrating Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner” from JewCE 2024.

Harvey Pekar (1939-2010) created and wrote American Splendor comics, which inspired a whole branch of memoir comics (not to mention the 2003 American Splendor movie), which Harvey produced with Robert Crumb and other notable artists. With his wife and creative partner, Joyce Brabner, who passed away in August, Pekar created a singular body of work, much of it Jewish-themed. On her own, Joyce wrote significant graphic novels. Harvey would have been 85 years old this past October 8. His and Joyce’s influence on comics remains strong.

Talking about Harvey and Joyce at this panel are two of Harvey’s artistic partners, Dean Haspiel (The Quitter; Billy Dogma) and Josh Neufeld (A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge; The Influencing Machine) as well as Jeff Newelt (editor of The Pekar Project); JewCE award-winning cartoonist Peter Kuper (Stop Forgetting to Remember; Ruins), who knew Harvey in ‘70s Cleveland; historian Arie Kaplan (From Krakow to Krypton; Encyclopedia of Epic Myths and Legends), and writer Danny Fingeroth (author of Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald’s Assassin), who hosted Harvey at a 2009 event with YIVO.