The twelfth volume spotlights Crumb's first collaborations with writer Harvey Pekar, which appeared in Pekar's magazine American Splendor (also the name of Pekar's biopic). This collection also includes a skeptical report-in-comics on an aerospace symposium, which comes off like a forerunner of Michael Moore's cocky documentary films), an evocative period piece featuring 1930s jazz musicians, and other pieces.