History ComicBook / AmericanSplendor

* WhiteVoidRoom: Many comics just feature Harvey talking in front of a white background, and the movie features a scene based on those parts, in which Harvey monologues about other people that share his same name.

* AdaptationExpansion: In the comic story "A Marriage Album," Harvey and Joyce meet and silently embrace, then the comic immediately cuts to them at Chagrin Falls the next day as they decide to get married. It's expanded upon in the movie, which adds a few scenes and lines showing the initial awkwardness between the two, then later ties in the story about Harvey and Toby discussing ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds''.

That's precisely what ''American Splendor'' was: the illustrated, sequential tales of ordinary, shlubby {{UsefulNotes/Cleveland}} file clerk Harvey Pekar, as told by ordinary, shlubby {{UsefulNotes/Cleveland}} file clerk Harvey Pekar himself (along with a variety of artists), documenting his generally mundane life from 1976 to his [[DiedDuringProduction death]] in 2010.

* AdaptationDyeJob: Averted. In an interview with Creator/{{NPR}}'s ''Fresh Air'', Joyce recalled that the first artist to draw her for the comic initially drew her as a blonde. Joyce and Harvey had to sit down with him and explain that she was actually a brunette, and that her hair color was the same as Harvey's.

** In the comic story "Ripoff Chick," Carla blows off going to see ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon'' with Harvey. Harvey later stated that it had actually been a Creator/MarxBrothers movie marathon, but for the comic he told artists Greg Budgett and Gary Dumm to draw any old movie that they wanted.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Harvey does this in one story (by way of a DiscretionShot) as a way to mellow out and alleviate his loneliness, although it doesn't help him much.

** Downplayed in "My Journey to Cannes", when Harvey recounts Danielle basking in the attention she gets from the teenage boys from the cast of ''Film/Elephant2003''.

** Downplayed in "My Journey to Cannes", when Harvey recounts Danielle basking in the attention she gets from the teenage boys from the cast of ''Film/{{Elephant}}''.

** Also happens with Harvey's second wife, Lark, and it's exaggerated to an extent. Harvey married Lark a year after starting ''American Splendor'', she's a minor character in a few stories, and they divorced in 1981. In the movie, Lark's leaving prompts Harvey to start writing the comic.

* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: In the movie, Toby is present when Harvey first publishes ''American Splendor'' in the 1970s, and Harvey even remarks that Toby is in the issue everyone looks at. Harvey actually didn't meet Toby until 1980, and Toby didn't appear as a character in the comic book until issue 9 in 1984.

* ArtEvolution: The comic was always written by Harvey but the art itself was done by a number of different artists, who used their own style. As a result the characters and style looked vastly different from issue to issue.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In one comic, while traveling the world to promote the ''American Splendor'' movie, Harvey, Joyce, and Danielle stop in Northhampton to visit Creator/AlanMoore and Melinda Gebbie. In one panel, while Alan and Harvey talk, Joyce is seen in the background [[CoverInnocentEyesAndEars worriedly covering Danielle's eyes]] while Melinda shows them page 31 of ''Lost Girls''.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the works of Creator/JackKerouac. In fact, in the forward to the first ''American Splendor'' collection, Robert Crumb mentions that Harvey is the type of person who wouldn't be out of place in a Kerouac novel. Harvey would later write a graphic novel called ''The Beats'', about Kerouac and his contemporaries.

* MostCommonSuperpower: Averted and defied. In an interview with Creator/{{NPR}}'s ''Fresh Air'', Joyce said that when Harvey brought her into the comic as a character, she requested that she be drawn as a normal woman rather than as a stereotypical curvaceous comic book woman.

'''Letterman:''' And also to promote your little WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse magazine here, your little ''Weekly Reader'', but you've blown every single chance you got. You're a dork, Harvey.\\

* AdaptationalLocationChange: For the "Alice Quinn" story. In the comic book, Harvey meets up with Alice at the bank; they go back to her house together, where they discuss ''Jennie Gerhardt'', and Harvey meets Alice's husband. In the movie, Harvey and Alice meet up at a bakery, and then discuss ''Jennie Gerhardt'' outside on the sidewalk while walking to her car.

* NoFourthWall: Ohh so often. Quite a few comics have Harvey's avatar addressing the audience directly. Then there's the movie...

** For his fourth appearance on ''Series/LateNight'', after enduring three appearances where Letterman poked fun at him and talked over him, Harvey wants to talk about Creator/{{NBC}}'s parent company General Electric's shady business practices, since he feels like corporate conflicts of interest would stifle the network with censorship and lead to a disinformed public. When he speaks to Creator/DavidLetterman about it before the show, Letterman facepalms and tells him that it's ''Late Night'', not ''Series/MeetThePress''. Harvey doesn't take this well, but Letterman isn't necessarily wrong; ''Late Night'' is a talk show with an irreverent and comedic bent -- which is why Letterman could get away with some light BitingTheHandHumor against GE (which Harvey dismissively acknowledges) -- and not the serious forum Harvey wants it to be.[[note]]To his credit, after Harvey's passing, Letterman remarked, "[Pekar] was anti-establishment in a way that you don’t see guys like that anymore. And that used to really upset me, because I just thought 'Come on Harvey, don't do this to us, just play the game, blah blah blah blah.' Now, jeez, I wish I could have had Harvey on every night."[[/note]]

* JerkassHasAPoint: Arguably, depending on your opinion of NerdsAreSexy. Toby enjoyed ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds'' thinking of it as empowering. Harvey wasn't sold on it. He felt that the suburban middle class college kids in the film did not represent folks like Toby, an low income adult file clerk.
-->'''Harvey''': "They're gonna get their degrees, get good jobs, and stop being nerds. Look, Toby, the guys in that movie are not 28 year-old file clerks who live with their grandmother in an ethnic ghetto. They didn't get their computers the way you did by trading in a bunch of box tops and $49.50 at the supermarket.