[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0akXKxbflM]
Another loss for Cleveland: Harvey Pekar, the storyteller and jazz critic whose rants and tales of daily life were realized in the American Splendor series of comic books, has died at age 70. TV fans of a certain age—and maybe even under a certain age—will remember him as one of David Letterman’s most notorious regular guests of the Late Night era. Pekar, already a cult figure at the time, was exposed to a broad audience at the program, but at the same time chafed against the idea of being made into a figure of shtick by ironist Letterman. (Their long-running arrangement, and the rest of Pekar’s life, was chronicled in the remarkable 2003 movie American Splendor.)
Above, one of Pekar’s memorable late-night appearances, later reproduced in the film. RIP, Harvey; you were American and splendid.