Huntington West Virginia, On The Fly by Harvey Pekar


Harvey Pekar's American Splendor got me through many hot, smelly, ill days during the two years I lived in Delhi. Each morning I would relish a couple of pages in order to gain perspective as I set out on my endlessly entertaining ten-minute morning promenade to work. Reading about other peoples' ordinary everyday existences somehow soothingly balanced out the exotic strange that surrounded me at the time. HWV, one of Pekar's last works, collects four stories centered around his trip to a book fair in Huntington, West Virginia. All of the art is provided by Summer McClinton and the illustrations don't add much to the work. If you're already a Pekar fan, you'll enjoy HWV anyway, but if you haven't read him before you should start with his piece de resistance, American Splendor, which is illustrated by a bevy of talented artists, and required reading for anyone who enjoys comics. Grade 10+

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