American Splendor is a series of autobiographical comic books written by Harvey Pekar and drawn by a variety of artists.

The stories in American Splendor concern the everyday life of Pekar in Cleveland, Ohio, told in a brutally frank style akin to the writing of Henry Miller.

[6] Situations covered include Pekar's job as a file clerk at a Veteran's Affairs hospital and his relations with colleagues and patients there.

[1] Several issues (#14, #13, #18) give accounts of Pekar's becoming a recurring guest on the NBC television show Late Night with David Letterman, including a 1987 interview segment in which Pekar criticized Letterman for ducking criticism of General Electric, the parent company of NBC.

American Splendor sometimes departs from Pekar's own life, with stories about jazz musicians (#23), the artists for his comics (#25), and a three-issue miniseries American Splendor: Unsung Hero (#29–31), which chronicles the Vietnam experience of Pekar's African-American co-worker Robert McNeill.

Other notable American Splendor illustrators include Alison Bechdel, Joyce Brabner, Brian Bram, Chester Brown, Alan Moore, David Collier, Drew Friedman, Michael T. Gilbert, Dean Haspiel, Paul Mavrides, Val Mayerik, Josh Neufeld, Ed Piskor, James Sherman, Don Simpson and Jim Woodring.

The later Vertigo Comics-published issues employed a new crop of artists, including Ty Templeton, Richard Corben, Hunt Emerson, Eddie Campbell, Gilbert Hernandez, Ho Che Anderson, Hilary Barta, Bob Fingerman, Rick Geary, David Lapham, John Lucas, Leonardo Manco, José Marzan Jr., Warren Pleece, Chris Samnee and Chris Weston.

Many stories from American Splendor have been collected into trade paperbacks from various publishers, their material not (for the most part) overlapping: Pekar wrote two larger works that carry the American Splendor label: Our Movie Year (Ballantine Books, 2004) and Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story (Ballantine, 2006).

Our Movie Year is a collection of comics written about or at the time of the American Splendor film; it includes an original piece illustrated by Ed Piskor, as well as material originally published in a variety of sources, including Entertainment Weekly, Cleveland Scene, The New York Times, Time Out New York, LA Weekly, Empire magazine, Gambit Weekly, the Music Maker Relief Foundation, the American Splendor film soundtrack CD, and the Sundance Film Festival Daily Insider.

Theatrical productions based on American Splendor have been mounted over the years: In 2003 a film adaptation featuring Paul Giamatti playing Pekar (as well as appearances by Pekar himself) and Hope Davis as his wife was released to critical acclaim and first honors at the Sundance Film Festival,[16] in addition to the Writers Guild of America Award for best adapted screenplay.