I have to admit, other than reading the atypical Unsung Hero, I haven't actually read any of Pekar's American Splendor work. Keep meaning to get around to it, never have. But I had developed a fondness for his style based on skimming a few stories and watching the American Splendor movie, and I dig Haspiel's artwork quite a bit, so when I saw that Vertigo was publishing The Quitter, I put it on my must read list, and I'm certainly glad I did. Whereas American Splendor tends to focus on the minutia of Pekar's day-to-day life (from what I can tell), The Quitter is about his formative years growing up, taking on jobs and generally trying to figure out what to do with his life. It's a universal experience, but the way Pekar tells it, filtered through an obsessive-compulsive mind and set very specifically in his own experiences, it comes across as something much more unique and unusual. Reading The Quitter is kind of like sitting down with Pekar to have him tell you the story of his youth and early adulthood, with the added benefit of your mental pictures being drawn by Dean Haspiel.
Pekar writes his stories in such a way that it feels like he's speaking directly to each reader. The entire tale is told in narrative captions, and in fact most of the dialogue balloons and thought balloons feel a little too "on the nose" and stilted when compared to Pekar's natural speaking "voice" in the captions. Pekar tells his story with little asides and thoughts that are mostly unrelated to the main story, and in so doing presents a rich, complete look at his life as filtered through his thought process. It's an unconventional way of writing, even for autobiographical comics, and it immediately draws the reader in, making them feel like they're part of a more personal, intimate form of storytelling.
Which is good, because Pekar has no real interest in soft-pedaling or trying to maximize the universal aspects of his story. In fact, he comes across in many of the scenes as the kind of person you wouldn't have wanted to deal with, and gives a (perhaps unintentional) sympathy to the figures who are his antagonists at the time. His propensity for fighting early on, his propensity for goofing off or quitting later, will no doubt recall in the readers' minds people who have started up with them for no reason, or have let them down when they were entrusting the other person with responsibility. Pekar is only mildly apologetic in looking back at these character flaws, presenting it in a "yeah, I know I was wrong, but what ya gonna do?" kind of way. He's not the most sympathetic of protagonists at times, but he's always interesting, and the flaws that might make him difficult or grumpy in person make him fascinating to read about.
There's a free-flowing form to Pekar's narrative that will no doubt put some people off. The overall thread of the story, tracing his many false starts and failures as he tries to find a success, is clear, but even by the end, Pekar's personality won't let him offer up a happy ending. Uncertainty remains even at the end of the book, and as a result, the book doesn't so much finish as just end. It's appropriate to the type of story being told, as is his divergence into various side stories that sort of peter out without consequence, but it's a type of storytelling that some will not find compelling enough, bending or outright breaking many of the rules of storytelling. Rather than any sort of rising action or climax, The Quitter basically maintains an even level throughout. Throughout the story, from start to finish, Pekar is presented as cynical but hopeful, and admirable in his ability to pick himself up from failures, minor and major, and go on to try and find the next potential failure. Pekar tempers even his successes with a pessimistic outlook, but there's an interesting blend, where he tempers his failures with a hopeful optimism for the future as well.
Pekar has collaborated with a number of legendary artists during American Splendor, and I can't really make any direct comparisons, having not read a lot of the work. However, I can say that he has found a terrific collaborator in Dean Haspiel, and Haspiel's sharp lines and strong sense of place really help to get the message of The Quitter across. Haspiel's work is undeniably stylized, but it's so grounded in reality, especially in his depiction of the city streets, apartments, stores and filing offices that make up Pekar's life, that one can't help but be drawn into it as quickly and efficiently as if you were seeing it unfold on a movie screen. Because Pekar's storytelling style is more driven by narrative captions than panel-to-panel continuity and dialogue, it really is primarily up to Haspiel to set the mood, show the expressions of the characters and even provide a fair amount of the comedic and dramatic timing. He never lets down in this regard, and while I've liked Haspiel's work in the past, The Quitter represents a pinnacle of artistic achievement for him thus far.
