No one ever made more out of the constant hassles, tiny tribulations, and occasional epiphanies of ordinary daily life than the late Harvey Pekar, whose American Splendor comics truly represent the apotheosis of the mundane. When Pekar died last July he left a number of scripts that will add to his legacy. One of the most intriguing, because of Pekar’s complex relationship with his hometown, is Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, a 120-page graphic novel illustrated by Joseph Remnant that will be published by ZIP Comics and distributed by Top Shelf. Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland weaves a idiosyncratic tapestry out of the author’s typically acerbic autobiographical reminiscences, which he combines with signal events from Cleveland history including the Indians winning the 1948 World Series, the notorious 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River as well profiles of Clevelanders such as Jane Edna Hunter, a black social worker who formed the Working Girls Association in 1911 and Charles Ruthenberg, a local radical whose ashes are buried in the Kremlin wall.

 

Remnant has illustrated a number of Pekar’s shorter pieces for the Pekar Project at the online Smith Magazine, where the publication of Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland was first announced. Chris Staros of Top Shelf Productions told ICv2 that the exact date for the publication of Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland has not yet been set, but it appears likely that it will be released in December.