Man-Size (man_size) wrote,
Man-Size
man_size

Give it up!

Enough people have seen AMERICAN SPLENDOR the movie and contacted me wondering if that image they saw for a fleeting moment, the one that looks like something from BILLY DOGMA, was something I drew?

The answer is: Yes.

Harvey Pekar and Ted Hope [the movie producer] set me up with the directors to watch some rough cuts of the movie so I could illustrate the scene in the film where Paul Giamatti's "Harvey" tries to write genre fiction and realizes he can't. In frustration, Harvey tosses the comic and decides to write what he knows, and that's what launches his autobiographical comix career.

The producers had found an underground sci-fi comic from the '50s or '60s but didn't have the rights to show a close-up of the interior. They hired me to create a plausible interior page. The only direction was that the page feature some mad scientist creature named DR. QUAKE and that he be yelling "Give it up!" to the hero. I suggested the hero look like a cross between FLASH GORDON and my very own BILLY DOGMA, accompanied by a love interest [whom I based on JANE LEGIT]. I created a scenario around their caveat with the understanding that it would be on screen for a fleeting moment, just enough time for the human eye to catch a glimpse of the words "Give it up," a metaphor for Pekar's crisis.

It seems the image was strong enough for some folks to spot my style and call me on it. For the interest of those folks and my friends, here is that fake page I drew in 2002.


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  • Joe Matt (RIP)

    We lost one of The Beatles of memoir comix. Pennsylvania born Joe Matt died at his California art table from an apparent heart attack at the age of…

  • Baltimore Comic-Con 2023

    I’m a guest at my favorite comix show of the year, Baltimore Comic-con 2023! Here is an excerpt from the announcement: ”Brandishing deep cuts of…

  • Dean Haspiel & BILLY DOGMA at Work-Bites.com

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