Goofs

During the scene in Shay's restaurant, the level of the soda in Harvey Pekar's cup fluctuates between half full and completely full at least twice.

The exterior front of the comic book store shows a wooden structure with windows that reach about half way up the height of the building and a wooden door with a glass section in it. The interior view shows glass extending from the ceiling to the floor and no wooden door.

When the real Harvey Pekar is recording his voice-over, someone fills his "orange soda" to the top of his glass. When he picks it up, there is less than half a glass of soda.

The scene where Harvey gets stuck behind the old Jewish woman leaves out a detail that would help it make sense.

In the movie, she says that the glasses are 6 for $2, but she couldn't carry 12 last time,, so they should charge her only $1.50 for the additional 6. There is no explanation as to why she should be charged less.

In the story from the original comic, she says that the glasses are 6 for $2 or 12 for $3.50, but she couldn't get all 12 last time, so they should charge her only $1.50 for the 6 she is buying now.

The circumstances of the Pekars adopting Danielle were fabricated for the film. Among other things, Frank Stack (the artist who helped Joyce put together "Our Cancer Year") is not Danielle's biological father.

In Joyce Brabner's comic book shop in Delaware, she is looking for the new issue of American Splendor, issue #8. American Splendor #8 was published in 1983. There are several promotional posters on the wall of the comics character Concrete (the black, white, and yellow ones that say "Can't find what you're looking for? Just Ask!"). The first Concrete story was not first published until 1986. (The poster wasn't released until much later.)

In the establishing Manhattan skyline shot before one of the David Letterman sequences, what was then (the 1980s) the Pan Am building is shown with its current "Met Life" signs (which didn't replace the "Pan Am" signs until 1992) shining from the top.

When Joyce Brabner is running through her personality disorder diagnoses, before she says her "delusions of grandeur" line, we see the phone and an open Fruit Cup near it. The scene is set in the 1980s, and the plastic fruit cups weren't on store shelves until the late-'90s or early 2000s.

Joyce Brabner comes by train from Delaware to Cleveland to meet Harvey Pekar in 1984. However, the Genesis engine shown pulling the train did not enter Amtrak's fleet until 1993, and the Amtrak logo on the engine is the post-Acela version (2000).

The sign outside the hospital where Harvey works refers to the "Department of Veterans Affairs". The "Veterans Administration" did not become the Department of Veterans Affairs until 1989.

When Harvey Pekar forgets his keys and cannot get into the apartment, the elderly woman opens the door for him. When he closes the door behind him, it bounces off the frame and doesn't latch shut.