48. HARVEY PEKAR (American Splendor)

Harvey Pekar, a fairly miserable and obsessive fellow who works as a file clerk in a Veterans' Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, is the creation of Harvey Pekar, a writer who sets out to chronicle his everyday life in comic form, recruiting artist Robert Crumb and others to illustrate anecdotes about the cranky hero's mundane, frustrating life. Eventually, the irregularly-published comic book - and its several sequels (Our Cancer Year, Our Movie Year, The Quitter) - made Pekar a fringe celeb, better-known for his fractious, controversial appearances on The David Letterman Show until the film adaptation brought attention to his ongoing comics. Besides covering his courtships, marriage, illnesses, career reversals and brushes with fame, Pekar has opened up the comic to chronicle the lives of his friends.

Trademarks: Poor fashion sense, middle-aged frustration, dour outlook and general whining.

On Screen: Cinematic sad sack Paul Giamatti plays Pekar in the film version of American Splendor.

Did You Know?: Jonathan Demme tried to adapt American Splendor in the '80s, but the project never came to fruition as Demme wasn't yet an established director.

Buy The New American Splendor Anthology: From Off the Streets of Cleveland now on Amazon