Review by Ian Keogh
Whatever you feel about his comics, there’s no denying Joe Matt was one of a kind. Only Robert Crumb’s confessional material approaches the utter lack of boundary awareness found in Peepshow, which delves deep into disturbing behaviour. The opening story features a scene of Matt considering he’s taught his girlfriend a lesson by giving her a black eye, and the self-satisfaction immediately prompts the thought that if he’s willing to present it as a form of vindication, what is he not revealing?
Compulsive masturbation, porn addiction, a legendary tight-fistedness, appalling treatment of partners and friends, and endless self-justification wash repeatedly across the pages of Matt transforming his life into caricature. It could be dismissed as the whining of an insecure loner were it not for the first rate cartooning. Tidily drawn and neatly arranged panels featuring expressive people provide a complete contrast to the chaotic content, while Matt’s assorted self-portraits range from the grinning huckster to the despondent romeo with plenty of cum faces along the way. Fellow cartoonists Chester Brown and Seth frequently feature, the latter often the conscience Matt seems to lack, pointing out poor behaviour and how often Matt is the author of his own problems.
Most of the run was previously published over three slimmer collections titled The Poor Bastard, Fair Weather and Spent. It’s the look back to his 1970s childhood in Fair Weather that’s the strongest section, despite moving further away from Matt’s primary obsessions. It’s introspective and unsentimental in detailing poor behaviour, with Matt as both bully and victim, uncaringly ripping off his friends, while living in fear of those he’s annoyed. It’s not as funny as much of the other material, but an astute evocation of the times.
During Peepshow’s serialised run the gap between issues became greater and greater until the series stopped. Further comics were planned, but Matt just never got around to finishing them and what he’d drawn was published posthumously after his 2023 death. It shows him in a slightly different light, living in Los Angeles and on the verge of bigger success as Peep Show has been optioned for a TV show – what were they thinking? – before flashing back to Matt’s last days in Toronto. We see another relationship doomed to failure and an excoriating farewell speech from Seth before a catalogue of relationship disasters, the same mistakes repeated over and again.
Also highlighted is Matt’s continuing slavery to money, never indulging in anything that costs while anticipating later living on the interest his savings earn. It’s a shame death prevents him commenting on his lifestyle. If he knew he’d die at sixty would he have lived differently?
Exceptional cartooning combined with jaw-droppingly poor behaviour makes for car crash reading, but the sheer volume is uncomfortable, and by the end of the regular run Matt’s humour and insight have expired.
While this is being promoted as the complete Peepshow, that’s playing fast and loose with definitions, something Matt might admire. It’s the complete run of individual Peepshow comics, all fifteen issues, but not the complete run of work published under the Peepshow title, as earlier and arguably better single page strips are absent here, but collected in Peep Show: The Cartoon Diary of Joe Matt.
