“I kept on buying records and listening to them. Finally, I was able to hear the relationship between the jazz improvisers' solos and the underlying structure that it's based on, the chord progression. That was pretty easy to do in the swing era, y'know, when jazz was, like, pop music, you know. It had made the charts and everything like that.”

American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality

Harvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality. He is best known for his autobiographical comic series American Splendor. Pekar wrote about his own life in a plain, direct style that helped define the feel of American Splendor. The series later inspired a 2003 film of the same name, and his work also reflected his interests as a critic and public personality.