American Splendor

Harvey Pekar was a Cleveland-born writer and jazz critic. In the 1970s, he devised the autobiographical comic series American Splendor, which was adapted for film in 2003. The author of several graphic novels, Pekar contributed to numerous periodicals. He earned the American Book Award and the regional Edward R. Murrow Award.

Robert Crumb (also known as R. Crumb), an American cartoonist, was a seminal figure of the underground comix movement in the 1960s. His cartoons, which did not shy away from sexual and scatological content, were considered transgressive and featured characters, such as Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, that became counterculture icons. He cofounded Zap Comix in 1968 and founded his own cartooning magazine, Weirdo, in 1981. Crumb’s wife, Aline Kominsky, with whom he collaborated on several projects, and his daughter, Sophie Crumb, are also cartoonists.