Am I a guy who writes about himself in a comic book, or am I just a character in that book? If I die, will that character keep going, or will he just fade away?
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the relationship between the creator and their creation, questioning identity and legacy.
Harvey Pekar's quote delves into the complex interplay between the artist and their work, raising existential questions about personal identity and the permanence of artistic expression. It suggests a contemplation of whether a creator's influence persists after their demise and how they are perceived in their own narrative versus that of their creations. Pekar's musings prompt us to consider how much of ourselves we invest in our work and the implications of that investment on our legacy.
In practice
In a panel discussion about personal storytelling and graphic novels.
It dawned on me that comics were not an intrinsically limited medium. There was a tremendous amount of things you could do in comics that you couldn't do in other art forms - but no one was doing it. I figured if I'd make a try at it, I'd at least be a footnote in history.
Fiction is the truth inside the lie.
Writing has certainly helped me explore about 20,000 versions of my authentic self. I suppose that's what most writers discover if they write long enough: there are a lot of selves roaming around in there.
It is a good thing to stand away from the canvas from time to time and take a full view of the picture.
It's kind of a subversive act to tell a story of a woman past a certain age, to develop a four-hour movie based on a marriage and a story of two people past middle age.
Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and inform our lives
You can’t bring an unwritten place to life without losing something substantial. Manila is the cradle, the graveyard, the memory. The Mecca, the Cathedral, the bordello. The shopping mall, the urinal, the discotheque. I’m hardly speaking in metaphor. It’s the most impermeable of cities. How does one convey all that?
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