Harvey Pekar, the irascible writer who spun the mundane details of his own life and the quotidian existences of his fellow Cleveland residents into comic-book narratives, and who showed that the comic-book panel could include everyday feelings of anxiety and disappointment as easily as it does the adventures of costumed heroes, has died.
Mr. Pekar enjoyed a brief and uneasy fame in the 1980s as an occasional guest of “Late Night With David Letterman.” A film version of “American Splendor” was released in 2003, starring Paul Giamatti as Mr. Pekar.
