History ComicBook / AmericanSplendor

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Carla from the story "Ripoff Chick" is a {{deconstruction}}. She is very flaky, speaks in a "posh" accent that Harvey believes is phony, only uses Harvey for free money and lodgings while leading him on, has her coworker do her work for her (and gets herself fired not long after he leaves the company), steals several of Harvey's records for a housewarming party after she moves out, and gets evicted from an apartment for not paying rent. Harvey concludes the story by saying that Carla eventually went to Europe, met a Moroccan kid who she brought back to Cleveland and married, then they left town and Harvey lost track of her.

* FunetikAksent: Harvey used this for people with ethnic accents, including those with African-American urban accents and Yiddish accents. Harvey even occasionally wrote himself with a Midwestern American accent.

* CelebrityParadox: The movie dives headfirst into this, as the actual Harvey Pekar is the narrator of the movie and even comments on how Creator/PaulGiamatti is portraying him. The movie proceeds to break down any real assumption of the FourthWall, with regular interludes with the real people and the actors taking breaks. One especially brilliant moment shows Paul Giamatti and Judah Friedlander taking a break from filming and observing (and laughing hysterically at) the real Harvey and Toby arguing over jellybeans. The end of the movie then shows a sneak peek at Harvey's compilation book based on the experiences he and Joyce had making the very film we just watched.

** Harvey's seems to be donuts. He will never turn down a free donut if it's available. In one story he's disappointed when the ''Creator/LateNight'' green room doesn't have any, and he's seen eating them several times in the movie.

* ManicPixieDreamGirl: Carla from the story "Ripoff Chick" is a {{deconstruction}}. She is very flaky, speaks in a "posh" accent that Harvey believes is phony, only uses Harvey for free money and lodgings while leading him on, has her coworker do her work for her (and gets herself fired not long after he leaves the company), steals several of Harvey's records for a housewarming party after she moves out, and gets evicted from an apartment for not paying rent. Harvey concludes the story by saying that Carla eventually went to Europe, met a Moroccan kid who she brought back to Cleveland and married, then they left town and he lost track of her.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Discussed in "My Struggle with Corporate Corruption and Network Philistinism". Harvey is due for his fourth appearance on ''Series/LateNight'', but has several issues with Creator/{{NBC}}'s parent company General Electric that he intends to address on the show. These include his concerns that GE will use the network to promote big defense spending, for selling a nuclear reactor that they knew was faulty, for their appointed president of NBC wanting to start a PAC at the network, for their [[https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/this-day-in-market-history-kidder-peabody-co-pays-25m-insider-trading-settlement/ar-AAKI5YO Kidder-Peabody insider trading fine]], and their history of antitrust violations. This leads to his infamous appearance on the show while wearing an "On Strike Against NBC" T-shirt.

* 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 much.

--> '''Joyce:''' You know, I don't really know what to expect. Sometimes you look like a younger Brando... but then the way Crumb draws you, you look... like a hairy ape, with all these wavy, stinky lines undulating off your body. I don't really know what to expect.

* RealPersonCameo: All the time. Especially in "Grubstreet, U.S.A." (where he meets Wallace Shawn), and ''definitely'' in "Our Movie Year," which was about the making of the ''American Splendor'' movie. And Creator/RobertCrumb is depicted in various comics too, of course.

* AuthorAppeal[=/=]GeniusBonus: Harvey enjoyed jazz albums and was an avid collector (and in fact he wrote many jazz album reviews for several publications), so there were a LOT of references to jazz musicians and songs in the comic book.

* ContemplateOurNavels: Practically raised to an art form- stories feature Harvey doing this then letting it go, doing to cope with some event, doing it even though his life is too mundane to warrant it, doing it because his life is so mundane that there's not much else to do, and a dozen other variations.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: Harvey does this in one story as a way to mellow out and alleviate his loneliness. Except it doesn't help, and it's a {{squick}}y scene anyway (but thankfully we get a DiscretionShot).

* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: A non-supernatural example. The movie begins with Harvey as a child, trick-or-treating as himself in contrast with other kids dressing as superheroes. ''This is a fictional event invented by the screenwriters''.

--> '''Joyce:''' But it was just like being at a flea market--you see one thing you never expected to find there and it's so special you've gotta have it, even if it's going to take all your money and you don't know how you'll ever get it home.

* [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Real Life Writes The Entire Comic Series]]

* RealityIsUnrealistic: In the film, both Paul Giamatti and Judah Friedlander sit watching Harvey and Toby argue over jellybeans, to show that neither Giamatti nor Friedlander are exaggerating or mugging in any way - and that Harvey and Toby ''really act that way''.

* SliceOfLife
* 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.

* UndergroundComics: Initially a self-published and distributed comic book. Later distributed by Creator/DarkHorseComics, and later still Creator/VertigoComics, an imprint of Creator/DCComics.
* VomitIndiscretionShot: Vomit after a kiss.
* WallOfText: Quite a bit, though in ''American Splendor'', the artwork itself isn't the focus--it helps frame the narrative, and it keeps the story going.

* CelebrityParadox: The movie dives headfirst into this, as the actual Harvey Pekar is the narrator of the movie and even comments on how Creator/PaulGiamatti is portraying him. The movie proceeds to break down any real assumption of the FourthWall, with regular interludes with the real people and the actors taking breaks. One especially brilliant moment shows the actors taking a break from filming and observing (and laughing hysterically at) the funny interactions with the real Harvey and Toby, arguing over jellybeans. The end of the movie then shows a sneak peek at Harvey's compilation book based on the experiences he and Joyce had making the very film we just watched.

* DeathByIrony: Harvey was on antidepressants to make himself feel better. He died by accidentally overdosing on them.

* CelebrityParadox: The movie dives headfirst into this, as the actual Harvey Pekar is the narrator of the movie and even comments on how Creator/PaulGiamatti is portraying him. The movie proceeds to break down any real assumption of the FourthWall, with regular interludes with the real people and the actors taking breaks. One especially brilliant moment shows the actors taking a break from filming and observing (and laughing hysterically at) the funny interactions with the real Harvey and Toby, arguing over M&M's. The end of the movie then shows a sneak peek at Harvey's compilation book based on the experiences he and Joyce had making the very film we just watched.

* CelebrityParadox: The movie dives headfirst into this, as the actual Harvey Pekar is the narrator of the movie and even comments on how Creator/PaulGiamatti is portraying him. The movie proceeds to break down any real assumption of the FourthWall, with regular interludes with the real people and the actors taking breaks. One especially brilliant moment shows the actors taking a break from filming and observing (and laughing hysterically at) the funny interactions with the real Harvey and Toby. The end of the movie then shows a sneak peek at Harvey's compilation book based on the experiences he and Joyce had making the very film we just watched.

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 [[AuthorExistenceFailure death]] in 2010.

* WhiteVoidRoom: Many comics just feature Harvey talking in front of a white background.

* CelebrityParadox: The movie dives headfirst into this, as the actual Harvey Pekar is the narrator of the movie and even comments on how Creator/PaulGiamatti is portraying him. The movie proceeds to break down any real assumption of TheFourthWall, with regular interludes with the real people and the actors taking breaks. One especially brilliant moment shows the actors taking a break from filming and observing (and laughing hysterically at) the funny interactions with the real Harvey and Toby. The end of the movie then shows a sneak peek at Harvey's compilation book based on the experiences he and Joyce had making the very film we just watched.

* UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict: ''Not The Israel My Parents Promised Me'' is about Harvey's opinions on the subject.

-->'''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.

--> '''Joyce:''' But it was just like being at a flea market--you see one thing you never expected to find there and [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming it's so special you've gotta have it]], even if it's going to take all your money and you don't know how you'll ever get it home.