Penn State Altoona News

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 618 hits

Meling Award presentation for Harvey Pekar rescheduled to November 5

The Meling Award event honoring underground comic Harvey Pekar previously scheduled for October 1, 2009, at Penn State Altoona has been rescheduled to Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 7 p.m. in the Paul R. and Margery Wolf Kuhn Theatre of the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts.

Pekar is best known as the writer of the long-running autobiographical series "American Splendor," based on his observations and experience of life in Cleveland and illustrated by many leading comic-book artists. It won recognition with the 1987 American Book Award and was adapted for the screen in 2003, to wide critical acclaim. More recently, he and his illustrators have further expanded the range of graphic writing with an emotionally intimate memoir of illness, a biography, and contemporary histories.

Pekar will be honored with a ceremony at 7 p.m., in the Paul R. and Margery Wolf Kuhn Theatre of the Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts, then present a lecture. The event is free and open to the public.

Penn State Altoona initiated the Meling Award in 2006 to honor the memory of its longtime associate dean for Academic Affairs, who passed away in 2005. The award is intended to memorialize Meling's love of literature and language and his unwavering support as an administrator for the development of Penn State Altoona's faculty as scholars and artists.