Peep Show! the Cartoon Diary of Joe Matt! by Joe Matt

Peepshow

by Joe Matt

For over ten years Joe Matt has been notorious in cult circles for the embarrassing frankness with which he reveals his distressing habits and predilections. Utterly shameless and completely self-absorbed, Joe Matt writes with an exhibitionist’s enthusiasm for his favorite subject, himself. The first incarnation of Peepshow was these one-page strips in which Joe shows off virtuosity for shocking self-revelation. He is an immature, womanizing, cowardly, cheap, porn freak. He also has crack comic timing and a remarkable gift for (self) caricature. The books of Joe Matt provokes this confession from guys over Oh my god, he’s just like me. I think those things but I never say them because my girlfriend would leave me. This diary collection made Joe Matt the hero he is today.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Nonfiction, Comix, Autobiography, Memoir

Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Joe Matt was an American cartoonist.
Matt grew up in Lansdale, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and started drawing comics in 1987. He is best known for his autobiographical series Peepshow, exploring themes of social awkwardness, abusive relationships and addiction to pornography.
Besides his cartooning career, Matt was known for his large collection of vintage Gasoline Alley comic strips.
Matt lived (illegally) in Canada from 1988 to 2002. He then moved to Los Angeles, California, where he died of heart attack in 2023, at age 60.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Matt collects pages of his early comics work from when he started in 1987 up to 1991. The strips chronicle his neuroses about masturbation (something readers of his other books would know only too well), his troubled relationship with his girlfriend Trish, his obsession with saving money, comics, as well as snapshots from his past at high school, art school, summer jobs, his family, former girlfriends, and how he came to meet Chester Brown and Seth.

"Peepshow" being his earliest works, they show how he started out writing tiny panelled one-pagers and slowly developed into a more confident artist/writer trying different styles, larger panels, longer stories until by the end of the book Joe is putting together pages and pages for a narrative rather than relying on the one page format.

It's different from his other books as it's more bite-sized though the topics are great. Joe's obsessions are trivial and he knows it but he makes them fascinating for the reader not simply through embarassing sheer honesty but by telling them well. He's a born storyteller and simple stories about a fight with his girlfriend Trish over a shiatsu massage can be spun out over several (large) pages and be the stuff of high drama.

Also if you're a fan of other Drawn & Quarterly artists you'll be interested in Joe's meetings with Chester Brown (Yummy Fur) and Seth (Palookaville) and how they became friends, and how they lived in the early '90s. Also Seth contributes a 2 page strip as an afterword, explaining a few things about Joe Matt that doesn't portray him in the best light (but then neither do Joe's own strips) but is still very funny.

It's a great comic book from a great comic book artist whom I wish would get over his insecurities and put out more books like Seth does. A fun read and very enjoyable, "Peepshow" is brilliant.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very sad to hear the news that Joe Matt passed away recently.

https://drawnandquarterly.com/news/jo...

He'll be forever one of the key "Canadian" cartoonists for me along with Seth and Chester Brown (who he meets and befriends while creating the strips in the book!). He's actually American, but I think most of his productive career was done while living in Montreal and Toronto. Most of the strips here have him in Montreal and then later in Toronto where he meets Chester Brown.

It's wild to see how many early themes pop up here that continue throughout his life. The masurbation addiction which get more and more all consuming later in the book Spent. His desire to live an absurdly frugal lifestyle and avoid work at all costs. It's hilarious how much he hated coloring Batman comics! Matt Wagner (the guy who drew those Batman comics) of Grendel fame features in a few strips. If you look at the Batman/Grendel series - maybe I'm exaggerating here - but damn, it's actually fantastic color. The art and color remind me of the work Mazzuchelli did with Batman Year One. I'll have to sit down and actually read the book.

The strips range from really microscopic panels just detailing Matt's sordid lifestyle and his relationship with his girlfriend Trish. Some get more experimental including one on page 38 that looks like a Joost Swarte page. One of the better multi-page stories is about Matt exploring Sexaholics Anonymous before getting turned off my the religious element and deciding he doesn't actually have a problem.

[Ignacio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tiene su aquel descubrir cómo eran las primeras tiras de Peepshow, ver de primera mano detalles biográficos fundamentales para entender a Matt, observar su relación con creadores como Matt Wagner... Pero se hacen bastante áridas de leer. Matt está explorando el formato y las historietas limitadas a una página inmensa, con viñetas enanas, no permiten sacar partido a lo que mola de Peepshow: el patetismo de su creador. Interés meramente completista para fans de la serie

[Michael Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love graphic novels/autobiographical memoirs by cartoonists, but this one tested me to the limit. The pages are a real struggle to get through, so dense with text that it wears you out to read more than about four at a sitting. More unpleasant is the subject matter and the way Joe Matt handles it. The phrase "too much information" comes to mind. I really didn't need to read about his dependency on porn, masturbation frequency, scab eating and nonstop relationship woes.

In fact, the only two pages I think I really enjoyed were the last two by his fellow Drawn and Quarterly cartoonist Seth, whose end summary of the quirks and eccentricities of this volume were dead on target.

A sidenote: I bought my book new, and it was bound so poorly that the last twelve pages just fell out of the binding. It bothered me at first, until I realized that the content of the book had "fallen apart" long before I reached those pages.

[Julesreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible graphic memoir comic strips — get better as they go. It’s his early stuff. Distasteful guy. Can’t look away from his life. Rip Joe Matt

[Vincent Flink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toppenbra!

[Maggie Siebert · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. given that this is a compilation of early material (pre-peepshow the series) we see jm still very much finding his footing in just about every regard. he can't decide whether to draw himself with lips, or the right level of self-deprecation, and while his trademark honesty is sometimes refreshing one can't help but get the sense that he was still sort of concerned with how he was portraying himself. the further along we get the better the material, with the highlight of the collection involving a trip back to philadelphia from canada to visit his maybe-dying father in the hospital. this is the most revealing story in large part because his constant self-analysis takes somewhat of a backseat in favor of just letting us watch cartoon joe react to situations as they're happening. the way he kills his time not seeing his family and instead blowing money on toys (a new interest for him at the time) which he resells almost the same day is the kind of pearl you hope for from autobiographical comics. i have not read any of seth's work, but his meanspirited two page afterword is the perfect cap on this collection and, i have a feeling, may inspire greater heights from matt's subsequent work.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something refreshingly honest about a guy who will write about his endeavor to masturbate 20 times in one day, and simultaneously realize he is not giving his fiancé the respect she deserves. Why he can't divert those same energies from one to the other is the question he can't answer, but at least he understands the question.

I liked the simple, rounded cartoony (but very adult oriented) style.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

ths cartoonist presents a perfect example of how religion messes up so many kids; most of the book he struggles with guuilt over masturbating. you'd think it was written in the 1800's!
anyway, he is vey neurotic, and i usually enjoy reading about neurotic people. this wasn't amazing, but it was enjoyable.

[Hank Stuever · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adored "Peepshow" in its original issues during the 1990s and early 2000s. Such a great self-examination of ego and humiliation and pride and disgust. I still remember the rawness of it and it seeming like a revelation to me in my late 20s.

[Grégoire Maillard · Rating 4 out of 5]

How surprised I was when I discovered this cartoon diary by the iconic D+Q cartoonist Joe Matt.

Indeed, I always thought that what Matt did was his publication Peepshow which was regrouped in The Poor Bastard, Fair Weather, and Spent. But I was missing this one piece which actually precedes his most famous publications and covers some of his early work between 1987 and 1991. It is mostly one page story which either recalls some of his early memories such as his first jobs and first loves, or his current life events such as his relationship with Trish, his family, or moving to Canada !

I really liked it as Joe Matt offers here a condensed version of every topic he likes and would actually give to the new readers a whole panorama of what he always talks about. It took me way more time than I would have thought reading it fully as there are quite a lot of text in respect to the small size of the actual book haha.

Stories always revolve around that, I quote, neurotic, compulsive, cheap, self-absorbed character. One of my favorite anti-hero! I like this piece as it is almost a testimony of his time, including the strong importance of religion and guilt and guilt in this time, but also like an unreal world in the way that the relationship works.

The drawing is more simple than what we can see in his later work but we can already see his personal style developing itself along the pages. The author himself gets a bit bored of the not developed enough version of himself. I also like the dark aspect of it, it gives Julie Doucet.

A very nice wink is a two pages story at the end of the book made my Seth in respect to his friend Joe Matt, again it was unexpected and a pleasure to read!

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collecting many of Joe Matt's early comic strips in one collection, Peepshow: The Cartoon Diary presents an unflinching view on his various relationships, obsessions and addictions. While he refines this approach in his later serialized comic with the same name, Joe's brutal honesty and unwavering ability to pull out the deepest secrets is captivating from the jump.

Here we see Joe deal with his relationship woes with Trish (who will be further fleshed out in the subsequent comic series), his obsession with comic collecting, his addiction to pornography and masturbation, and his hilarious interactions with legendary Canadian cartoonists Seth and Chester Brown. The stories are mostly one page gags, but Joe packs a lot of detail (some might say it's a bit too much detail) into each page. The reading experience can be daunting, but Joe's snappy dialogue keeps things rolling. Peepshow lays Joe's life bare for the readers, and it's a deeply unflattering look. Many of us who suffer from insecurities can't even begin to fathom this level of transparency but Joe makes it look easy. I've always felt that autobiographical stories can end up feeling disingenuous since self-bias can really affect the way the narrative is delivered, but no one can question that Joe does himself any favors with the depiction of his own behaviors. Beyond the content of the actual comic strips, Peepshow is a masterclass in compositions. Though many of the panels seem crammed into maximize the story per page, the narrative flow is pitch perfect.

Thoroughly candid, at times touching, and always hilarious. That's Joe Matt for you. RIP.

[Clint · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
These early diary comics by Joe Matt are more interesting as a historical item to me than as a pleasure read. It’s neat to see the beginnings of his aggressively transparent memoir style as well as the persona he’d present for later (better) comics, and his cartooning style already looks great. It’s also, 30+ years later, a unique time capsule into his late 20s, including his earliest associations with Seth and Chester Brown that appear near the end. Along those lines, it’s eerie and sad how often he chides friends in this for their smoking/drinking/eating habits, knowing he’d barely make it to 60 himself before dying of sudden heart issues.

Unfortunately this early version of his comic self is missing a lot of the unexpected charm he’d present later on. I’m not sure if this presentation is more honest or just less skillfully exaggerated and self-aware in its neurotic self-obsession. Either way, it can be repetitive and unsympathetic in a not fun way that his other work wasn’t for me.

Matt also drew tiny panels at this point, probably fitting 3-4 pages worth of material on a single page bursting with dialogue, and separate from the content, the act of reading dense B&W comics like that is just unpleasant to me. The earliest bit of the Locas half of Love and Rockets had similar issues before settling into a more spacious style, so I’m guessing it was common enough choice for a lot of 80s indie comics. Whatever the case, this is worth reading for anyone who enjoyed Matt’s later comics, but not a great starting point for anyone not already sold on him.

[Colin Murtagh · Rating 5 out of 5]

With the recent announcement of the passing of Joe Matt, it seemed like a good time to pull this back out. This was the first book of his I read, and at the time, it felt groundbreaking. Nowadays, it'll look its age, but up to this point we didn't have the autobiographical books as a large subset of graphic novels. Alongside Chester Brown, and Seth, both of whom are included here, there was a new wave of more honest, more character driven autobiographical books. And these are very honest.
His issues with pornography, masturbation, his relationship with his girlfriend at the time, Trish, his relationship with his family, his cheapness, his problems arising from his catholic upbringing. IT all sounds particularly bleak, but although he comes across as a bit of an arse, you can see why.
This is one of the foundation stones of the modern autobiographical comic. And like most things historical, it probably won't fit in to today's sensibilities. But for the time, it was jaw dropping

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

matt's cartooning improves as it goes, so more pleasure is gained simply from the expressions and movement

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strangely disturbing

[viy]

all joe matt stuff makes me have a panic attack cuz i get too scared about if this is me. Is this what knausgaard is like

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Destacables la falta de vergüenza a la hora de enfrentar la autobiografía, donde no se esconden momentos bochornosos donde el autor queda mal. Con cameos de otros dibujantes canadienses, como Seth.

[Kyle Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Matt's Peepshow is a very intimate, autobiographical comic strip that looks at the musings and insecurities that many of us feel, but are afraid to acknowledge. I am amazed at his ability to put his deep, dark secrets out on the page for everyone to read. A lot of Joe Matt's insecurities are universal, making the reader confront their own demons. The many small quirks that are emphasized in Peepshow make his characters come to life. I had the opportunity to meet with Joe Matt over lunch recently (before I had read this book). He is a great all around guy and I enjoyed the brief time I had to converse with him. Having now read this book, I have to say that Joe Matt did a great job of capturing his essence. While the book told me a lot about him that I wasn't able to glean from him over lunch, there is nothing in the book which doesn't ring true to the character I got to know. Honest, funny, and occasionally heart-breaking, Peepshow is a wonderful comic strip that I wholeheartedly enjoyed.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious. Whether the stories he tells are *truely* autobiographical or not, doesn't really matter (even if it adds to the frisson): he knows how to tell a compelling story, and how to build up jokes. And that's what counts.

Graphically, the stories in this volume are a little more varied than the ones in later volumes. At least in terms of the page composition, splash panels at the top &c. On the other hand, the later volumes are more easily readable, since he usually crams a lot of tiny panels onto the page in this book, whereas he turns to a standard six panel page in the later ones. (Of course he gripes about his own tendency to 'draw too small' in this book.) Both methods have their allure, it just makes the later books a little 'easier on the eye'.
But the stories and the jokes don't change much.

[George Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Matt is always enjoyable to read and is a very accomplished comic book artist- I very much enjoy his nerdy and insecure voice but am wondering if and when he can break free of the confessional style and do something more ambitious that reflects his talent

This book alternates between diaries about his deadend jobs and love life and observations on life. But Matt also understands what makes comics unique and makes all kinds of experiments with the form including falling through panels, changing sizes, and a co-authored and co-drawn piece with his girlfriend where they draw themselves and fight over the text.

[Dave Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the way this comic was drawn and assembled. A tad smallish in some panels but overall a great graphic package.

Good line of humor more or less formatted by what, after a time, is indulgent autobiography obsessed with some pretty obnoxious personality traits.

So Joe Matt -- writer, artist, creator (this being this diary and all) -- ain't my favorite comic character . Neurosis and Catholic upbringing plus an addiction to pornography...please spare me the details...and the rampant misogyny.

So if you want to read this -- enjoy the layout and graphic skill, the astute paneling -- and try to ignore the obsessions.

[Darrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

sympathethic and pathetic at the same time , Joe Matt is an extreme cheapskate, an argumentative cuss and a comic fiend - this was an almost tabloid sized volume of black and white work

i find alot of similarities between his work and my thoughts

dude is brilliant

unfortunately i had to get rid of this book because the binding glue was coming out and pages were dropping willy nilly

[Jenny Montgomery · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do really like Joe Matt's autobiographical comics but, as he himself admits, they are formulaic, whiny, and occasionally gross! I sort of cringe reading this stuff, especially when it comes to his porn addiction, but on the other hand his artwork is so nicely done and the stories are pretty gripping.

[Mark Desrosiers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only in comix can a tedious, boring, maybe even insufferable man seem fascinating and semi-universal. Worth reading once for the I've-been-there domestic spats and family teeth-grinding. But not worth rereading.

[g · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hopelessly self-obsessed and kind of obnoxious, Joe Matt tells us everything we kind of don't really want to know. I found myself liking this against all odds. The Seth and Chester Brown cameos didn't hurt.

[jeremy bradner · Rating 4 out of 5]

comics about a guy who's addicted to porn and cheap as hell.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

amateurish. weirdly, the 'gross-out' passages were boring. I liked learning about being a cheapskate... he is waaaay good at it which indicates a good imagination.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite comics of all time.

[Marina Clarke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just didn't work for me