From a 92-year-old’s account of serving for Japan in WW2 to a gruelling depiction of cancer and the success of a Corkman, comics are thriving, says Don O’Mahony

BASED on the comic-book strip of the same name, American Splendor stars Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar, a middle-aged loser who spends his days working as a file clerk, collecting jazz records and moaning about everything and anything under the sun.