Pekar conveys this progression, in the form of Malice's first-person chronological narrative, without a hint of irony, judgment or condescension, further confirming his own artistic integrity, and demonstrating an ability to get outside of himself hitherto unhinted at in his succession of autobiographical work.

Who is Michael Malice and why is Harvey Pekar his graphic-novel biographer? After graduating with honors from the exclusive Stuyvesant magnet high school in his native New York City and from Bucknell with a degree in business, Malice decided to spin the career "roulette wheel" and sample a series of increasingly lucrative temp jobs in NYC, eventually ending up in business software training. Meanwhile, he had a brief but reasonably successful career as a standup comedian and wrote an unpublished novel retelling a portion of the Bible, for which he did two years exhaustive research to gain what he felt was a sufficient grounding in world religion. When that went nowhere, Malice became entranced with a photo of the '80s band Rubber Rodeo and decided to interview its members in preparation for another novel, which eventually turned into a screenplay.

One of the former band members was working as an animator on the film version of American Splendor and the connection to the graphic novelist was made. Pekar loved Malice's improbable stories and introduced him to readers in a chapter of Our Movie Year.

Now Malice stars in his own Pekar book - and what of that happy ending? You don't want me to spoil it.

See also my reviews of Pekar's The Quitter and Our Movie Year.