Joyce Brabner

(Hatton played horror roles – The Creeper – in the early 1940s without makeup because he was severely disfigured by a glandular disease.)

During this time, Brabner became friendly with "two sometime artists who were very involved in comic fandom", which "seemed like a lot of fun."

Feeling burned out from "working with courts, with sexual abusers of children and so on," Brabner began working with Tom Watkins, who "was doing a lot of costumes for the Phil Seuling comic shows."

Moonlighting "as a costumer while continuing to work in the prison programs [she] had organized on [her] own," while not spending much time at conventions or comic shops, she nevertheless eventually became co-owner of a comic book (and theatrical costumes) store herself.

Her store stocked Harvey Pekar's American Splendor, but when the store "ran out of an issue" (one of Brabner's partners selling the last copy of American Splendor #6 without her getting a chance to read it), Brabner sent Pekar a postcard directly, asking for a copy, and the two "began to correspond."

Developing a phone relationship, after a stay in the hospital by Brabner, Pekar spoke to her daily and sent her a collection of old records.

Brabner recalls that she was:

"flying out to his [Pekar's] part of the country on other business, and decided to visit him, and the next day we decided to get married!"

On their second date, they bought rings, and the third date they tied the knot.

With the benefit of hindsight, she believes that it was Pekar's honesty that attracted her to him, crediting his work on "American Splendor [for giving her] a worm's-eye view of what his other marriages were like," allowing for a greater degree of understanding and openness between the two of them.

It was Brabner's second marriage and Pekar's third.

As Pekar's third wife, she has appeared as a character in many of his American Splendor stories, as well as helping package and publish the various iterations of the comic.

Citing her "talent for publicity," Brabner recalls that American Splendor was losing money and decided (having "stopped working for the prison program") to engage in some "screwball publicity."

Utilising her costume-making skills, she

"started cutting up some of his [Pekar's] old clothes and making little Harvey Pekar dolls; just like the Shroud of Turin, they were made with clothing actually worn by the author, like some holy relic. They were these odd collectibles, and I carried these ugly little dolls around at our first San Diego con together."

The gimmick worked, and they "picked up nine distributors for the book!"

The comic began to be profitable, and one of Brabner's dolls "ended up on The David Letterman Show."

She still makes them occasionally for charity auctions.

Joyce Brabner (born March 1, 1952) is an American writer of political comics and the widow of Harvey Pekar.

Brabner recalls "read[ing] comics when I was five or six years old – including Mad magazine", her first exposure to political satire.

Drifting away from comics as she grew older and discovered that "for the same amount of money I could get on the bus and go down to the library," she nevertheless remembered "a lot of what I'd read."

Living "in Delaware working with people in prison, with kids in trouble," running a non-profit culture-based support program for inmates in the Delaware correctional system, Brabner was a founder and manager of "The Rondo Hatton Center for the Deforming Arts," a small theater space in Wilmington, Delaware.

Seeking "a tool to reach teenagers with information about the military" in the face of the peacetime draft and what she saw as an "aggressive recruiting campaign" (aided by the release of Top Gun in 1986).

Brabner recalls that Merkle was looking for some "counterpropaganda, a way of presenting some of the things the recruiters weren't telling the kids about the draft," including the stories of "veterans and people from El Salvador."

Although Merkle had only budgeted for a black and white comic, Brabner felt strongly "that color was necessary if they were going to reach the kids", preferably with "popular artists and writers," but "realized with the integrity and honesty the undergrounds had."

Brabner, Merkle and the CCCO managed to find a publisher willing to split the costs of printing, were given "some grant funding" and found some creators willing to defer their pay.

After publication, the CCCO took on the responsibility of distributing the comic – Real War Stories – including getting copies "into some schools [where] they were used in classrooms".

This drew the attention of the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice, after an Atlanta, newspaper objected strongly at the "presence of Real War Stories" at a "high school 'career day'."

Pressure from "different people from around the country" caused the school to tell the Atlanta Peace Alliance and the CCCO that "they couldn't [attend the career day], prompting the APA and CCCO to file a suit against the school."

At the hearing, the Department of Defense "offered an expert witness" who labelled the contents of Real War Stories as being "all made up", despite Brabner's assertion that not only were they "all autobiographical stories", but that personally "participated in all the interviews [which]... were all carefully documented."

During one courtroom exchange, Brabner recalls that they "had military Naval court records" supporting the truth of some of the autobiographical comics stories, and when the case was continued, the "CCCO got a letter from the Department of Defense essentially withdrawing the complaint."

Her writing on Brought to Light with Alan Moore and artist Bill Sienkiewicz brought critical praise from both the artistic and activist communities.

Brabner edited Eclipse Comics' Real War Stories (1987–1991), which brought Mike W. Barr, Steve Bissette, Brian Bolland, Paul Mavrides, Dean Motter, Denny O'Neil and John Totleben (among others) together on behalf of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors and Citizen Soldier.

Lou Ann Merkle, "an art student and activist living in Cleveland" began working with the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, a "military and draft counseling organization," and sought out Pekar for advice on the costs involved in creating a comic.

Originally a joint publishing venture between Eclipse Comics and Warner Books, the 1989 graphic novel flip book Brought to Light dealt in part with the Central Intelligence Agency's involvement in the Iran–Contra affair.

The impetus behind Brought to Light was the involvement of the Christic Institute ("a public-interest legal firm, best known at that time for its work on the Karen Silkwood case") in a case "involving the bombing of a press conference in Costa Rica."

Survivors of the bombing who had investigated "found," says Brabner "it involved much broader issues involving covert operations [and] possible swaps of drugs for arms."

In the early 1990s, Brabner and Pekar became guardians of a young girl, Danielle Batone, when she was nine years old.

Danielle became a recurring character in American Splendor, alongside Pekar's diverse cast of family and friends.

In addition to Pekar and American Splendor, Brabner has worked with many of independent comics' highest-profile writers and artists.