Harvey Pekar

The slasher horror flick "Freddy vs. Jason" scared off the competition for young males this weekend, coming in at No. 1 with an estimated $36.4 million. Appealing to a vastly different audience, Disney's western "Open Range" also opened with decent numbers, grossing an estimated $14.1 million, corralling the No. 3 spot and posting the second-best per-theater average among the top 10 films. "S.W.A.T.," which took last week's No. 1 spot, came in No. 2 this week, with $18.6 million.

BRIGHT, airy, comfortable and cheery -- these are not the first words one would think to use when describing either '50s-modern architecture or the work of Bruce Eric Kaplan. And yet there he is on a recent afternoon, casually padding in sock feet around the sun-kissed living room of his Westside home, a historic structure designed by noted architects A.

"It's been a hectic week," director Vince Waldron explained to last Saturday night's sold-out audience at Hollywood's Theatre/Theater that had just viewed his production of "American Splendor," the nine-months-and-running play adapted from Harvey Pekar's droll comics of the same name. Pekar will be attending San Diego's 22nd annual Comic Convention at a 4:30 p.m. Saturday performance of "American Splendor," and an 11 a.m. Sunday panel discussion at the Convention Center on West Harbor Drive.

Dead rats and voodoo threats replace a newcomer's gift basket at a Brooklyn apartment complex. A little old lady, dressed like Strawberry Shortcake, finds solace with her dolls and cats. Sinister scents and a nervous neighbor make one man wonder what might really be happening on the other side of his shared wall. These are all snippets of private lives, witnessed through open curtains or over backyard fences. They are also the riveting real-life material documented in an online comic-book project called "Next-Door Neighbor."

The art establishment has a long and distinguished history of dismissing cartoon imagery. "Of all the lively arts the comic strip is the most despised, and with the exception of the movies it is the most popular," critic Gilbert Seldes wrote in 1924. That perception didn't change much until the last decade and a half. Now comic and cartoon characters are seemingly everywhere in the art world. That ubiquity inspired the show "Comic Release!

The Book of Genesis Illustrated R. Crumb W.W. Norton: 224 pp., $24.95 How do we read R. Crumb's "The Book of Genesis Illustrated"? It seems a contradiction: a sober reconstruction by a man who admits he "[does] not believe that the Bible is 'the word of God.' " And yet, the further we get into this electrifying adaptation, the more it all makes sense. If you remove divinity from the equation, "Genesis" becomes a human creation -- "a powerful text," in Crumb's words, "with layers of meaning that reach deep into our collective consciousness, our historical consciousness, if you will."

Clark Kent, alias Superman. Bruce Wayne, alias Batman. Peter Parker, alias Spiderman. Lita Ford, alias Heavy Metal Queen? Comic books and rock 'n' roll, prime manifestations of pop culture, would seem as complementary as burgers and fries.

Cancer Vixen A True Story Marisa Acocella Marchetto Alfred A. Knopf: 216 pp., $22 Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person A Memoir in Comics Miriam Engelberg HarperCollins: 126 pp., $14.95 paper --- WHEN a jealous, skinny model learns that Marisa Acocella Marchetto is engaged to a suave, gentle Italian restaurateur whom she wants for herself, she strikes out in the most inhumane of ways. She mocks Marchetto for having breast cancer. "I'm not sick," she tells Marchetto's fiance (in front of her).