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American Splendor blurs the boundaries between a traditional fictional film and a documentary through the interweaving of visual elements throughout the film. The directors, Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman, both documentary directors, fuse their backgrounds in documentary filming with Harvey Pekar's own creative medium of comic books. Throughout the film, the viewer is transported from the traditional visual realm of fictional films with the three-dimensional characters interacting with one another into an illustrated comic book infused scene. As discussed in the interview with the directors, the film "celebrates blurred boundaries between comics and film, documentary and fiction." They incorporate both their taste and knowledge of documentary films while staying true to Pekar's own comic book medium, with "stylistic forays into comic-book esthetics," utilizing "animated sequences and illustrated frames." The film meshes together reality and imaginary worlds, presenting sequences of the real world with real people and real places intertwined with the world of comic books which represent real people and real places. The opening sequence of the film sets up the viewer for this blurred medium idea with a shot of Pekar walking down the street which then becomes frozen and a comic book frame is imposed around it. A small caption appears as the frame becomes part of a drawn comic strip. The camera then proceeds to follow or pan across the strip until it reaches the next image which then comes alive and shows the next point of action. This blending of comic book frames, drawing styles with captions and film sequences further blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction, thus creating a type of "meta-reality" From the very beginning of the film, the viewer is met with a reality within a fiction within a reality concept, with real life characters revealed behind the scenes, including the real Harvey Pekar shown in front of a vast white background exposing a "behind the scenes" take on the artist and the idea of a blurred reality. Additionally, this white background can also be seen as representing the idea of a "blank canvas" on which anything can be projected. 

This fusion of the actor (Paul Giamatti) playing a real life character, Harvey Pekar, with the incorporation of the actual real life character included in the film, comes together multiple times throughout the film. For example, when Pekar and his wife fly to Los Angeles to watch a stage play based on the comic book of Harvey's life as well as when Harvey appears on the David Letterman show, with the actor Paul Giamatti preparing in the green room and then the real Harvey Pekar is the one who walks onto the Late night set. 

The "When is a Documentary" article by Dirk Eitzen posits that documentaries "assert that a projected state of affairs is true in the real world," with documentaries making "assertions of truth." Additionally, documentaries "assert that particular states of affairs represented actually happened," as is shown in varying degrees in "American Splendor," with the real life situations. However, by fusing the comic book additions with the real life depictions, the directors defy this assertion of the truth that the article argues is cemented in a documentaries foundation. The article also touches on the viewers response to documentaries as opposed to fictional films. It states that films produce "dramatically different kinds of responses when viewers see it is a fiction film than when they regard it as a documentary." American Splendor acts as both a documentary and a fiction film and this ambiguity regarding its medium works in an effective way to further communicate information about Harvey Pekar and the comic book genre. By including the real life Harvey Pekar and the acted Pekar, the legitimacy about the films message is elucidated. The presence of the real Pekar makes the "truth" about the film come to life. The viewer doesn't feel as if they are being gipped out of a true portrayal, his presence makes the information projected in the film more believable, allowing the viewer to avoid that moment of hesitation or to suspend disbelief. The viewer doesn't see the actors and think, well this isn't actually a true-to-life portrayal, because the real Pekar brings a kind of legitimacy to what is being acted out. Additionally, his commentary and the comic book additions can act as "situational cues," as well as the representation of real life places and real people work this way. The inability to actually label the film as a documentary or a fiction film comments on the ambiugity inherent in comic books. I am not an avid comic book reader, actually, I have never really read any comics besides Betty and Veronica, because I have always found them to be a little perplexing. This confusing element of comic books, at least it is confusing for me, works effectively with the confusing medium of American Splendor. By not clearly or obviously stating that this film is a "documentary," or this film is a "fiction film," the directors enable the viewer to have a more engaged viewing of the film and the life of Pekar.