American Splendor creator Harvey Pekar has shuffled off this mortal coil forever.
According to the Associated Press, the 70 year old comic was found dead at his Cleveland home early Monday.
Pekar had suffered from prostate cancer, asthma, high blood pressure and depression.
“Harvey was one of the most compassionate and empathetic human beings I’ve ever met,” said Paul Giamatti, who portrayed Pekar in a popular 2003 film.
“He had a huge brain and an even bigger soul. And he was hilarious. He was a great artist, a true American poet and there is no one to replace him.”
Meanwhile, Lucy Shelton Caswell, curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University, said that Pekar would be remembered as an “innovator” who wrote stories about ordinary things.
“People identified with what he was writing about and the stories that these people were drawing because it was so ordinary.
“His work was accepted by the mainstream. It was bought by public libraries and read widely. The cartoon library has all of Pekar’s works in its collection.”
