[1] Pekar and Budgett began working together in 1974;[4] before American Splendor, Budgett illustrated a couple of short Pekar stories (one of them in partnership with Dumm) in the underground comix anthologies Bizarre Sex and Flaming Baloney X.
From 1976 until 1988, Budgett illustrated stories in Pekar's autobiographical comics series, American Splendor.
Budgett drew a number of American Splendor covers as well, including issues #2, 3, 7, 8, 11, and 13.
In the early 1990s, Budgett and Dumm co-wrote and drew stories for Eternity Comics' Plan 9 from Outer Space: Thirty Years Later and their own erotic series Shooty Beagle and Woofers & Hooters (both with Eros Comix).
By the early 1990s, Budgett had "de-emphasized cartooning"[4] and didn't work in the industry again until 2004, when (at the urging of Gary Dumm) he illustrated another Pekar story in the 2004 collection American Splendor: Our Movie Year.