TagHarvey Pekar

Lost Alan Moore Essay on Magic

An essay on magic by Alan Moore originally meant for Joel Biraco‘s KAOS 15 has finally seen the light of day.

Regard the world of magic. A scattering of occult orders which, when not attempting to disprove each other’s provenance, are either cryogenically suspended in their ritual rut, their game of Aiwaz Says, or else seem lost in some Dungeons & Dragons sprawl of channelled spam, off mapping some unfalsifiable and thus completely valueless new universe before they’ve demonstrated that they have so much as a black-lacquered fingernail’s grip on the old one. Self-consciously weird transmissions from Tourette’s-afflicted entities, from glossolalic Hammer horrors. Fritzed-out scrying bowls somehow receiving trailers from the Sci-Fi channel. Far too many secret chiefs, and, for that matter, far too many secret indians.

Beyond this, past the creaking gates of the illustrious societies, dilapidated fifty-year-old follies where they start out with the plans for a celestial palace but inevitably end up with the Bates Motel, outside this there extends the mob. The psyche pikeys. Incoherent roar of our hermetic home-crowd, the Akashic anoraks, the would-be wiccans and Temple uv Psychic Forty-Somethings queuing up with pre-teens for the latest franchised fairyland, realm of the irretrievably hobbituated. Pottersville.

Exactly how does this confirm an aeon of Horus, aeon of anything except more Skinner-box consumerism, gangster statecraft, mind-to-the-grindstone materialism? Is what seems almost universal knee-jerk acquiescence to conservative ideals truly a sign of rampant Theleme? Is Cthulhu coming back, like, anytime soon, or are the barbarous curses from the outer dark those of Illuminists trying to find their arses with a flashlight? Has contemporary western occultism accomplished anything that is measurable outside the séance parlour? Is magic of any definable use to the human race other than offering an opportunity for dressing up? Tantric tarts and vicars at Thelemic theme nights. Pentagrams In Their Eyes. “Tonight, Matthew, I will be the Logos of the Aeon.” Has magic demonstrated a purpose, justified its existence in the way that art or science or agriculture justify their own? In short, does anyone have the first clue what we are doing, or precisely why we’re doing it?

Certainly, magic has not always been so seemingly divorced from all immediate human function. Its Palaeolithic origins in shamanism surely represented, at that time, the only human means of mediation with a largely hostile universe upon which we as yet exerted very little understanding or control. Within such circumstances it is easy to conceive of magic as originally representing a one-stop reality, a worldview in which all the other strands of our existence…hunting, procreation, dealing with the elements or cave-wall painting…were subsumed. A science of everything, its relevance to ordinary mammalian concerns both obvious and undeniable.

Fossil Angels part 1

Fossil Angels part 2

(via Cat Vincent)

I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but it seems to cover some of the same ground as his essay from Dodgem Logic 3.

It’s been published by a site called why I love The Master, which has all sorts of wonderful Alan Moore stuff, including this American Splendor strip written by Harvey Pekar and drawn by Moore.

Alan Moore, Harvey Pekar

For more on Moore, check out our dossier on him.

‘The Pekar Project’ Editor Explains What’s Next For Harvey Pekar’s Unpublished Work

Cleveland

MTV: Where do things stand with “The Pekar Project” now? How far ahead did Harvey work on the scripts?

NEWELT: There are still a bunch of comics yet to come out on “The Pekar Project” that we have in the can and done. […]

MTV: I know Harvey had been working on a few other books, too. Were you involved with any of those? Do you know what their status is?

NEWELT: The first branch-off of “The Pekar Project” is coming out this year. He was working on a graphic novel called “Cleveland,” which comes out during the summer of 2011 from this company called Zip Comics. The script was ready for that. It’s one-third history of Cleveland, one-third Harvey’s experiences there, and one-third biographical sketches of Cleveland characters. It’s drawn by Joseph Remnant, one of the definitive Pekar artists.

MTV: ‘The Pekar Project’ Editor Explains What’s Next For Harvey Pekar’s Unpublished Work

RIP Harvey Pekar

Harvey Pekar

Harvey Pekar, writer of the autobiographical comic series American Splendor, is dead.

Pekar, 70, was found dead shortly before 1 a.m. today by his wife, Joyce Brabner, in their Cleveland Heights home, said Powell Caesar, spokesman for Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death. Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner, wrote “Our Cancer Year,” a book-length comic, after Pekar was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1990 and underwent a grueling treatment.

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cleveland comic-book legend Harvey Pekar dead at age 70

(Thanks Audrey)

Here’s Pekar’s famous appearance on Letterman:

Here’s an excellent piece Pekar wrote about the experience under a pseudonym.

Pekar’s most recent and perhaps last work was his online series The Pekar Project.

Douglas Rushkoff Interviews Harvey Pekar – in Comic Form

Pekar project with Douglas Rushkoff

Pekar Project: PEKAR & RUSHKOFF KIBBITZIN’ HOW LIFE GOT INCORPORATED

(via Dangerous Minds)

Harvey Pekar on Letterman, 1988

That post about Brother Theodore, which included links to clips of Theodore on the Letterman Show in the 80s, reminded me of Harvey Pekar‘s appearance on the show. The video’s above and also check out:

The In These Times article Pekar wrote about the ordeal, under a pseudonym.

Confessions of a troubled comic book writer.

There just may be a little justice in the world. Either that or the fates have a twisted sense of humor. There is a movie version of Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor, and it’s kicking up a buzz at Sundance! Maybe this will get Harvey on the new Letterman show. Heh, heh. Good pictures and links here.

IGN: That’s Paul Giamatti in American Splendor

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