[3] While at the Cooper School, Shamray was contacted by Pekar about illustrating his work.
In an introduction to a compilation of Pekar's work, Robert Crumb stated that Shamray "went all the way, taking hundreds of photos of Pekar, his wife, his apartment, the streets of his neighborhood, and so on, and drew from the photos.
(He had previously illustrated a few weeks of Batiuk's strip Funky Winkerbean).
[3] Beginning in 1988, Shamray was on staff as a graphics editor at the Sun Newspapers in the Greater Cleveland area for more than 20 years.
While there, he developed, designed, and edited the chain's weekly entertainment supplement, Weekend.