American Splendor: Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story

Harvey Pekar, the master of quotidian autobiography, turns his unblinking eye to another true story in this 2006 graphic novel from Random House. Co-written with his subject, it chronicles the life of Michael Malice, a contrarian with a sharp mind and a chaotic past. Illustrated by frequent Pekar collaborator Gary Dumm, the book is a single-issue, book-length installment in Pekar’s American Splendor tradition—applying his gritty, conversational realism to a biography as unvarnished and idiosyncratic as his own. It matters as a vivid, non-fiction character study from one of comics’ most distinctive voices.