Working, as Adapted by Harvey Pekar

Jeremy Hatch bio ↓ · June 8th, 2009 · filed under books, comics

Harvey Pekar, the only famous comic-book creator who isn’t an artist himself, last month released a graphic adaptation of Studs Terkel’s Working with The New Press. Dave Gilson summarizes it on Mother Jones as not “the most far-fetched attempt to repackage” the classic 1974 collection of interviews with blue-collar workers — “that would be the 1978 Broadway musical of the same name.” Pekar worked with 16 artists on the adaptations; as usual, the quality of the artwork is wildly uneven, but as Gilson puts it, “the original words rise above the rough spots (even when presented in that goofily unproletarian typeface, Comic Sans).” And “the storytellers’ sense of unease that the bottom could drop out of the American Dream at any moment is all too familiar.” The adaptation was co-edited by Paul Buhle, who put out The Beats: A Graphic History in March. Some sample panels can be viewed over at the Utne Reader.

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Jeremy Hatch is a writer, musician, and professional bookseller leading a cheerful, aimless life in San Francisco. He is the Junior Literary Editor of the Rumpus and has a blog which he updates once in a while. More from this author →

2 Responses to “Working, as Adapted by Harvey Pekar”

Zak Smith Says:
June 8th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Completely irrelevant fact check: Stan Lee, Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman are also famous comics creator who aren’t also artists. Though Harvey could be considered the only famous indie comics creator who isn’t also an artist.
Jeremy Hatch Says:
June 18th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Thanks for the correction, Zak! On the contrary, it’s entirely relevant. Even though I knew that about those three, for some reason they didn’t come to mind as I was writing the post. Just another reminder to watch out for categorical language, and never use it unless you’re really certain that the implied claim is true. (And I am really certain about that particular ‘never’!) Sadly, I changed it from ‘one of the only’ to ‘only’ for brevity’s sake, when I couldn’t think of another. Duh!

Also: sorry I didn’t respond a week ago; I’ve been in the process of moving house for the last two weeks and somehow missed this comment.