American Splendor

I’m deep into the anthology of Harvey Pekar’s American Spendor comics, and it’s really remarkable, mesmerizing. Harvey goes to work, Harvey jives, Harvey hustles records, Harvey hangs out at the corner, Harvey goes down to the supermarket and buys bread. Not Superman but Everyman. It’s slice of life stuff, obviously, but it’s also more than that. Was it Harvey who Lee Ranaldo had in mind when, at the end of a Sonic Youth track called “Small Flowers Crack Concrete,” he chants the line Fucked up in Cleveland?