Joe Matt died last year at the relatively young age of 60. Peepshow #15 is his last comic, published posthumously and completed with the help of his friend and fellow cartoonist Chester Brown, who inked the last four pages.
Like all of his comics, this one is autobiographical and picks up where his last book Spent left off with Joe Matt headed to LA in 2003 to see about getting his comics made into an animated HBO show (which never happened). He also chronicles his tumultuous relationship with a fan, Maggie, as well as his usual poking fun at himself.
I’m a big fan of Joe Matt so I was both shocked to hear of his passing and pleased to hear we were finally getting some new work from him - Spent was published in 2007 and there’s been nothing since. And Peepshow #15 is great - it’s as wonderfully drawn and polished as Matt’s style had become over the years, and his slice-of-life anecdotes and narrative style are effortlessly entertaining to read.
One of the best chapters is Seth’s farewell speech to Joe when he left Toronto in 2003 for, briefly, the east coast, before settling in LA. Partly why I love Joe Matt’s comics is because I’m also a big fan of Seth and Chester Brown’s work, so I always enjoyed seeing their appearances in Joe’s comics and seeing that side of their characters (they had a really fun dynamic). Seth’s speech is funny and touching and inadvertently serves as a wonderful eulogy to Joe too.
The final chapter, on his hero R. Crumb, is both sad and funny, which could be used to describe most of Joe’s comics. He talks about how boring Crumb’s Bible book is (he’s right) and then decries his own lack of productivity, calling himself worthless and talentless. Joe Matt definitely wasn’t the most prolific cartoonist but he was undeniably talented - his comics are excellent and I would rate them higher than Crumb’s.
He might’ve just said those things to set up the punchline at the end, or maybe he really did feel that way and that’s why, 16 years after his last book, Spent, was published, he only created the 30 pages of comics that make up this issue. Or maybe he just lost interest in comics - just because he’s good at something doesn’t mean he has to do it if it doesn’t make him happy - or did other things to make money that took up his time; he mentions on average he made $4k a year off his comics ($6k was the most he ever earned in a year)!
It’s a shame though that this is all we have because this issue feels like a preamble to a more involved, compelling narrative - that we’ll never get to see now. Throughout this issue he tip-toes around the fact that he’s obsessed with young Asian girls and says in his chapter on the ten women he’s been with, that his life was about to be turned upside down with Stephanie, the 18 year old fan he hooks up with on the internet. But that’s it because he died before he could expand further.
It’s unsatisfying and disappointing that he didn’t start telling this story sooner to complete it. As it is, it feels like a shallow look at an obsession that perhaps (you’d hope) he’d explore in more depth had he had the time. That and the lottery tickets story are the only downsides to this otherwise brilliant, final comic.
Fans won’t need any encouragement to pick this one up, and I’d recommend Joe Matt’s comics to anyone interested in indie and slice-of-life comics. Peepshow #15 is sadly the last great instalment from a unique cartoonist who was much better than perhaps he knew.
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