Comics as Criticism

This chapter describes Harvey Pekar’s comic book treatments of jazz as extensions and developments of his prose criticism. Building on close analysis of his early freelance journalism, I contend that Pekar’s later comics experiment with the form of jazz criticism. Collectively, these works act as Pekar’s interventions into jazz historiography, ongoing attempts to merge critical thought and creativity. In Pekar’s comics, a naturalistic address dramatizes the quotidian moment but simultaneously frames it within hindsight. However, I argue that Pekar’s strips do not merely relate a history; they comment upon it, interrogating jazz historiography through words and pictures.