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.
If I didn't have my camera to remind me constantly, I am here to do this, I would eventually have slipped away, I think. I would have forgotten my reason to exist.
Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book.
The thing about science fiction is that it's totally wide open. But it's wide open in a conditional way.
To me, this acquirement of nervous, physical, and emotional concentration is the one element possessed to the highest degree by the truly great dancers of the world. Its acquirement is the result of discipline, of energy in the deep sense. That is why there are so few great dancers.
To the poet fated to be a poet, self-expression is as natural and as involuntary as breathing is to us ordinary mortals.
When the bright angel dominates, out comes a great work of art, a Michelangelo David or a Beethoven symphony.
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