Joe Matt

Joe Matt (September 3, 1963 – September 18, 2023) was an American cartoonist, best known for his autobiographical work, Peepshow.
Early life
Joe Matt was born and raised in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, a middle-class suburb of Philadelphia. He had three siblings. His mother was a housewife. His father held a variety of different jobs, including owner of a carpet store and a longtime stint working for Amtrak; in Matt's words, "he seemed to drift from job to job a lot." Matt credited his childhood lack of money with forming his later habit of cheapness. He attended Catholic school until 12th grade.
Matt developed drawing skills by age five, and later said he considered himself an artist all his life. His mother encouraged him in this pursuit, having herself attended the Philadelphia College of Art before dropping out to raise her family. His earliest influences were Charles Schulz's Peanuts and Al Capp's Li'l Abner, which he would collect by clipping the strip out of the daily newspaper.
Matt earned a degree from the Philadelphia College of Art, majoring in illustration. After graduating, he attempted to gain a foothold in magazine illustration in New York, but failed. He started drawing comics in 1987 after getting a job at Philadelphia comic-book store Fat Jack's Comicrypt and doing assistant work for his friend and college classmate Matt Wagner, the creator of Grendel and Mage.
Career
In his autobiographical comic Peepshow, Joe Matt examines his inadequate social skills, his addiction to pornography, his cantankerous and sometimes physically abusive relationship with his then-girlfriend Trish, and the lingering effects of his Catholic upbringing.
Matt began creating Peepshow in 1987. In 1992, his Peepshow strips were serialized by Kitchen Sink Press under the title Peepshow: The Cartoon Diary of Joe Matt. His work was later published by Canadian publishing house Drawn & Quarterly.
Joe Matt's work on Peepshow is part of the autobiographical comics genre, kick-started by the confessional stories of Harvey Pekar and Robert Crumb. Along with these artists, his work frequently involves soliloquies "to camera". Peepshow is part of a self-referential universe that includes Matt's contemporaries Chester Brown and Seth, all of whom have included each other in their books.
In 2004, HBO began developing an animated series based on The Poor Bastard, a collection of stories from Peepshow #1 to #6, produced by Matt and David X. Cohen. However, Joe Matt later stated that "they came to their senses and changed their mind".
The last issue of Peepshow, #14, went on sale in 2006, and a collection of Peepshow #11–14 titled Spent was released in 2007.
Matt worked as a colorist for other comics to make ends meet, most notably on superhero comics, a genre he disliked. Among his credits as a colorist are the Batman/Grendel limited series, Fish Police and Jonny Quest.
Personal life and death
Matt lived illegally in Canada from 1988 to 2002. He later lived in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.
Joe Matt died on September 18, 2023, of a heart attack, while working at his drawing desk. He was 60.
Awards
For Peepshow, Matt was nominated for four Harvey Awards: for Best New Talent in 1990 and for the Award for Humor in 1991, 1992, and 1993.
Matt was nominated for a 1989 Harvey Award for his coloring work on the Batman/Grendel series.
Bibliography
Peepshow #1–14 (Drawn & Quarterly, February 1992October 2006)
Four collections of Joe Matt's comics have been published as books, as well as a "jam" sketchbook:
Peepshow – The Cartoon Diary of Joe Matt, 1992 (Kitchen Sink)/1999 (Drawn & Quarterly), a collection of mostly one-page strips, usually dealing with a single subject, originally published between 1987 and 1991.
The Poor Bastard, 1996 (Drawn & Quarterly), which collects stories published in Peepshow #1–6. This book chronicles Matt's relationship and breakup with then-girlfriend Trish.
Joe Matt's "Jam" Sketchbook , 1998, Collaborations with Chris Ware, Seth, Chester Brown, Julie Doucet, Adrian Tomine, Max, Jason Lutes, Dave Sim, Will Eisner, Marc Bell, James Kochalka, Ivan Brunetti, Steven Weisman, etc., limited print.
Fair Weather, 2002 (Drawn & Quarterly), which collects Peepshow #7–10. In this book Matt chronicles an episode from his childhood in 1970s suburbia.
Spent, 2007 (Drawn & Quarterly), which collects Peepshow #11–14. In this book, Matt chronicles a story arc that documents his obsessive "editing" of porn videos.
References
Works cited
External links
Biography at Drawn & Quarterly
Interview from MungBeing
Comic Book Awards Almanac
Hand-written interview with Joe Matt from ifpthendirt.
1963 births
2023 deaths
Alternative cartoonists
Underground cartoonists
American comics artists
American comics writers
Comics colorists
Artists from Philadelphia
People from Los Feliz, Los Angeles