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Peepshow #1-6
The Poor Bastard
This aptly-titled collects for the first time Joe Matt`s compelling and often hilarious storyline chronicling the crucial moments in his miserable life, beginning with his secret lust for his lover`s best friend, and its ensuing devastating consequences. Ongoing troubles with women, an insatiable obsession with pornography...this poor bastard has serious problems, yet unlike the rest of us, he works them out in full public view, allowing us to get closer to him...maybe a little too close!
176 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2002
11 people are currently reading
680 people want to read
About the author
Joe Matt
56 books96 followersJoe 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 95 reviews
January 26, 2018
Joe Matt collects six issues of his autobiographical comic Peepshow, from the nineties, depicting himself honestly as a whining, self-obsessed, neurotic loser wasting his time searching for the perfect girlfriend. He’s also into porn, is difficult and selfish with his girlfriends, and annoys the hell out of his two close friends, Chet Brown and Seth, who are quick to tell him he is a delusional idiot every chance they get. It’s really well drawn and almost deliberately offensive in places to push the point of self-deprecation.
There are a lot of sexually obsessed (and some of them cringingly-uncomfortable, loser-focused) comics to go around: Fante Bukowski is one; Someone Please Have Sex with Me (Gina Wynbrandt); Matt’s own Spent; David Heatley’s My Brain Hanging Upside Down; My New York Diary (Julie Doucet); Kiss and Tell: A Romantic Résumé, Ages 0 to 22, by Marinaomi, and many others (I have more in a list, GN-Sex). It’s fascinating and sometimes too uncomfortable for most people to read about, but these stories can also be funny. It's part of life, usually hidden.
For some reason, reading The Poor Bastard, (whom you are sometimes amused by but not sympathetic with at all), I was reminded me of David Cross’s cringingly uncomfortable fringe tv show, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, about a clueless, unqualified American sent to London to sell flavored water to the British, who has no idea about British culture, girls, or anything. Joe Matt similarly pushes the edges of comedy in his comics.
There are a lot of sexually obsessed (and some of them cringingly-uncomfortable, loser-focused) comics to go around: Fante Bukowski is one; Someone Please Have Sex with Me (Gina Wynbrandt); Matt’s own Spent; David Heatley’s My Brain Hanging Upside Down; My New York Diary (Julie Doucet); Kiss and Tell: A Romantic Résumé, Ages 0 to 22, by Marinaomi, and many others (I have more in a list, GN-Sex). It’s fascinating and sometimes too uncomfortable for most people to read about, but these stories can also be funny. It's part of life, usually hidden.
For some reason, reading The Poor Bastard, (whom you are sometimes amused by but not sympathetic with at all), I was reminded me of David Cross’s cringingly uncomfortable fringe tv show, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, about a clueless, unqualified American sent to London to sell flavored water to the British, who has no idea about British culture, girls, or anything. Joe Matt similarly pushes the edges of comedy in his comics.
February 23, 2012
THE P BRYANT THEORY OF INTRINSIC VALUE
This won't be any great flash of originality but I would just like to note down here that I have found that in this life there is absolutely NO CORRELATION between what you PAY for something and the amount of JOY, PLEASURE or HUMBLE AMUSEMENT you gets out of it.
So that means that there's no point in complaining or exulting in how much/how little something was.
People have sent me stuff for FREE which I have loved as a pearl beyond price (Matthew 13:46), or I have bought a book or an album for 50p in a 2nd hand shop which has become one of my all time Desert Island Things, and of course I have paid up £15 for a brand new novel which turned out to be a barking dog fit only for the catsmeat factory. Was that a mixed metaphor?
Of course the old album for 50p had to be upgraded to the £15 remastered edition a few years later, and then to the expanded remixed regurgitated edition a scant couple of years after that, but all those purchases were a kind of homage, acts of worship for the exultant thing which was the original 50p bargain.
Anyway, graphic novels are like really expensive, man. And like a bowl of bonbons you can hoover them up in an hour or so and think well, was that really time and money well spent?
Graphic novels appear to be the chosen genre for modern male self-loathing. Women artists do not seem to do this type of thing. Or maybe I haven't come across them. But such a lot of disgust in these things! It's really car-crash autobiography, a grisly ironic compulsive self-abasing self-lasceration in funny pictorial form - I have read a lot of Crumb, Clumsy, Maus, American Splendor, Paying for It and now The Poor Bastard and all to one degree or another are autobiographical howls of horror and visceral nastiness of the day-to-day variety, you know, no serial killers but a lot of masturbation and sexual failure and catastrophic self-esteem and excruciating dullness. Just normal boring shit.
The Poor Bastard had me nodding along and saying yes, this is what so many guys are like.
Not me of course! I hasten to add. No, no. Nothing at all like me.
This won't be any great flash of originality but I would just like to note down here that I have found that in this life there is absolutely NO CORRELATION between what you PAY for something and the amount of JOY, PLEASURE or HUMBLE AMUSEMENT you gets out of it.
So that means that there's no point in complaining or exulting in how much/how little something was.
People have sent me stuff for FREE which I have loved as a pearl beyond price (Matthew 13:46), or I have bought a book or an album for 50p in a 2nd hand shop which has become one of my all time Desert Island Things, and of course I have paid up £15 for a brand new novel which turned out to be a barking dog fit only for the catsmeat factory. Was that a mixed metaphor?
Of course the old album for 50p had to be upgraded to the £15 remastered edition a few years later, and then to the expanded remixed regurgitated edition a scant couple of years after that, but all those purchases were a kind of homage, acts of worship for the exultant thing which was the original 50p bargain.
Anyway, graphic novels are like really expensive, man. And like a bowl of bonbons you can hoover them up in an hour or so and think well, was that really time and money well spent?
Graphic novels appear to be the chosen genre for modern male self-loathing. Women artists do not seem to do this type of thing. Or maybe I haven't come across them. But such a lot of disgust in these things! It's really car-crash autobiography, a grisly ironic compulsive self-abasing self-lasceration in funny pictorial form - I have read a lot of Crumb, Clumsy, Maus, American Splendor, Paying for It and now The Poor Bastard and all to one degree or another are autobiographical howls of horror and visceral nastiness of the day-to-day variety, you know, no serial killers but a lot of masturbation and sexual failure and catastrophic self-esteem and excruciating dullness. Just normal boring shit.
The Poor Bastard had me nodding along and saying yes, this is what so many guys are like.
Not me of course! I hasten to add. No, no. Nothing at all like me.
September 29, 2022
Se dice que las buenas obras de arte colocan al receptor de las mismas frente a un espejo que le devuelve claves con las que explicarse a uno mismo. Si esto es así, este cómic responde a la premisa. No sólo este en concreto, sino toda la serie Peepshow de Joe Matt. Una serie caracterizada por la exagerada honestidad y la exposición impúdica de las miserias del autor como persona y como hombre. Una especie de Woody Allen pornográfico. Un retrato epocal y generacional (no solo una, sino varias generaciones de hombres occidentales están aquí representados) que conecta con la parte de nosotros más vil, egoísta, inmadura, irresponsable, repugnante y neurótica. Me atrevo a decir que cada uno de nosotros lucha diariamente contra el Joe Matt que le constituye, tratando de que no gane terreno, con la esperanza puesta en reducirlo a un punto minúsculo de influencia. Conocerlo es empezar a vencerlo. O no.
April 12, 2012
This strip collects Joe Matt’s ‘Peepshow’ series into one self-loathing volume. Seriously, the book groans when you open it, then whines for an hour about how no hot hardbacks find its spine attractive. I wonder if the makers of Channel 4 comedy ‘Peep Show’ took inspiration for their entirely similar entertainment about two selfish losers from the strip? Hmm. Joe Matt’s corny lovable self-parody makes for delightful reading. This really is a one-joke affair of a perpetually selfish dufus exiling himself from the world of girlfriends and regular sex into bedsits and chronic masturbation. Nothing more to be said. Good fun. The aftermath of this pathetically believable behaviour can be found in Spent.
September 27, 2023
I'm getting a bit more relaxed with my 5-star ratings... but I think this is pretty fantastic. I love Joe Matt's cartooning style. It's so fascinating to spend time with a person my age from an older generation. (If that makes any sense.) Here we see all the quirks of Matt's personality but before it becomes more sad than funny like in Spent.
Here Joe Matt is dating Trish but starts to fall in love with beautiful girls he sees around town. He ends up breaking up with his girlfriend basically so he can freely masturbate. Later he tries to date a few different girls.
I knew Matt was super into Gasoline Alley and other classic strips, actually he's maybe just as well known for his Gasoline Alley collection than he is his comics. But here him and Seth are super into ViewMasters. I've never seen one in the wild, not since I was a kid at least.
Here Joe Matt is dating Trish but starts to fall in love with beautiful girls he sees around town. He ends up breaking up with his girlfriend basically so he can freely masturbate. Later he tries to date a few different girls.
I knew Matt was super into Gasoline Alley and other classic strips, actually he's maybe just as well known for his Gasoline Alley collection than he is his comics. But here him and Seth are super into ViewMasters. I've never seen one in the wild, not since I was a kid at least.
October 9, 2014
Joe Matt takes confessional comics to new levels of brutal honesty. His talent as an artist and appealing, cartoony style makes some of the darker revelations a bit easier to handle... and he's also funny as hell. Collecting issues of his series 'Peepshow', 'The Poor Bastard' follows the author's daily misadventures as a broke American cartoonist living in Toronto. It's kind of like 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' (if Larry David was on welfare), complete with Seinfeld-esque coffee-shop conversations featuring 'celebrity' guest-stars Seth and Chester Brown. But Matt started 'Peepshow' long before Seinfeld became a cultural institution, taking inspiration from autobiographical comics by R. Crumb, Justin Green, Spain Rodriguez, and Art Spiegelman.
'The Poor Bastard' -- like 'Peepshow', 'Fair Weather' and 'Spent' -- is superbly rendered and designed, with the high quality production values Drawn and Quarterly are known for. Matt's love for classic cartoonists like Carl Barks clearly informs his tasteful style, and off-sets the sometimes tasteless subject matter. But you have to respect his honesty. His porn fixation (for example, which is not the taboo it was in the early nineties) and terrible treatment of his long-suffering girlfriend -- including an instance of domestic violence -- are depicted with a remarkable objectivity, resisting the impulse to explain or justify his often lousy behavior. Whatever the psychological motivations, 'The Poor Bastard' is one of the most important memoirs of the early nineties, alongside 'My New York Diary' by Julie Doucet, 'Epileptic' by David B., and 'The Playboy' by Chester Brown.
'The Poor Bastard' -- like 'Peepshow', 'Fair Weather' and 'Spent' -- is superbly rendered and designed, with the high quality production values Drawn and Quarterly are known for. Matt's love for classic cartoonists like Carl Barks clearly informs his tasteful style, and off-sets the sometimes tasteless subject matter. But you have to respect his honesty. His porn fixation (for example, which is not the taboo it was in the early nineties) and terrible treatment of his long-suffering girlfriend -- including an instance of domestic violence -- are depicted with a remarkable objectivity, resisting the impulse to explain or justify his often lousy behavior. Whatever the psychological motivations, 'The Poor Bastard' is one of the most important memoirs of the early nineties, alongside 'My New York Diary' by Julie Doucet, 'Epileptic' by David B., and 'The Playboy' by Chester Brown.
July 25, 2016
A thoroughly tedious book about an utterly repellent man. I'm fine with a degree of repetitiveness when the point of the repetition is to make something transgressive mundane (such as the reasonably abundant sex in Valencia by Michelle Tea, for example). But I couldn't possibly give a shit about the love life and drab fantasies of some macho-nerd misogynist. This is twenty five years old and I'm sure it made better sense in 1992 when it still seemed ground-breaking to delve into the come-rags-and-all details autobiographical details of self-loathing losers with nothing to offer the world beyond their View-Master collections and the occasional black eye for girlfriends who dare anger them. If anything this is an interesting time capsule of how far we've come from the celebration of dudes brave enough to admit in comic form that they're miserable woman-hating pieces of shit, as though there were something cutting edge about that opinion.
It's well drawn, the lines are nice, the details interesting, but I can get that from lots of people. I'm glad it's not the '90s anymore--I'm glad that we seem to be moving toward a context where self-loathing isn't worthy of long study unless it amounts to something, chronicles personal growth, change, development. Here, Joe Matt--emotionally about twelve but in his late 20s--moves from being a mean, gutless, self-hating nerd who hits his girlfriend and is cutting edge about it because he writes about it in his comic to being a mean, gutless, self-hating nerd who's sad because his girlfriend left him and moved away to work for Disney (which of course he looks down on). "The Poor Bastard" implies that the reader should have some sympathy, or at least pity, but I ended this hoping he'd be crushed under a bus.
It's well drawn, the lines are nice, the details interesting, but I can get that from lots of people. I'm glad it's not the '90s anymore--I'm glad that we seem to be moving toward a context where self-loathing isn't worthy of long study unless it amounts to something, chronicles personal growth, change, development. Here, Joe Matt--emotionally about twelve but in his late 20s--moves from being a mean, gutless, self-hating nerd who hits his girlfriend and is cutting edge about it because he writes about it in his comic to being a mean, gutless, self-hating nerd who's sad because his girlfriend left him and moved away to work for Disney (which of course he looks down on). "The Poor Bastard" implies that the reader should have some sympathy, or at least pity, but I ended this hoping he'd be crushed under a bus.
September 23, 2022
This is a very honest look at an immature jerk guy who alienates girlfriends, potential girlfriends, family, and friends in a "quest" for a perfect woman who not only "understands" him but also meets his exacting "standards" of physical beauty.
The grass is always greener . . . The protagonist dates a cute, kind woman, who is petite, but she has a "big butt?" No good.
He meets a redhead with freckles. A solutely not -- not "exotic enough."
When he takes an interest in a Chinese girl, he notices that she has "fat calves?" Nope. Fat calves are a hard "no," a clear non-starter for our jerk protagonist.
This is a cautionary tale of male restlessness, immaturity, and inability to commit to a relationship. Grow up, gentlemen. If you wish to remain unreasonable, you are signing up for seasons and seasons of loneliness, during which your only companion will be an endless stream of pornography, misery, unattainable perfection, and lots of regrets.
Recommend!
The grass is always greener . . . The protagonist dates a cute, kind woman, who is petite, but she has a "big butt?" No good.
He meets a redhead with freckles. A solutely not -- not "exotic enough."
When he takes an interest in a Chinese girl, he notices that she has "fat calves?" Nope. Fat calves are a hard "no," a clear non-starter for our jerk protagonist.
This is a cautionary tale of male restlessness, immaturity, and inability to commit to a relationship. Grow up, gentlemen. If you wish to remain unreasonable, you are signing up for seasons and seasons of loneliness, during which your only companion will be an endless stream of pornography, misery, unattainable perfection, and lots of regrets.
Recommend!
September 18, 2018
Ano, vidite dobre. Palivo cetl comics. Vetsi sci-fi uz by snad bylo jen to, kdybyste me potkali v Prostejove jak jim brokolici.
Abych to objasnil, manik mi to strcil do ruky s tim, ze si to mam precist, protoze to je fun. Jelikoz ten manik sedi naproti me na veletrhu a dneska nebylo moc prace, mnoho vymluv jsem nemel. Musim se naucit rikat NE i na neco jineho, nez na "chcete neco nealkoholickeho?"
Jak jiste vite, comicsy radim nekam mezi holocaust a TV Barrandov. Nicmene jsem se tentokrat rozhodl, jelikoz mi tema bylo blizke (loser co chce prcat a mluvi jen o pornu a nahani buchticky), ze budu nezaujaty. Inu, vydrzelo mi to jen pet minut. Pribehu je 6 a jsou vsechny plus minus stejny - debil vstane, stezuje si, nikdo s nim nechce chodit a tak si porad steluje antenu. Vtipny to je celkem asi 6 sekund. Asi jako to bylo vtipne v mem zivote. Ano, i tuto dobu mam za sebou. Ted uz mam nastesti vetsi penis a na uctu vic nez petikilo.
Naskle.
Abych to objasnil, manik mi to strcil do ruky s tim, ze si to mam precist, protoze to je fun. Jelikoz ten manik sedi naproti me na veletrhu a dneska nebylo moc prace, mnoho vymluv jsem nemel. Musim se naucit rikat NE i na neco jineho, nez na "chcete neco nealkoholickeho?"
Jak jiste vite, comicsy radim nekam mezi holocaust a TV Barrandov. Nicmene jsem se tentokrat rozhodl, jelikoz mi tema bylo blizke (loser co chce prcat a mluvi jen o pornu a nahani buchticky), ze budu nezaujaty. Inu, vydrzelo mi to jen pet minut. Pribehu je 6 a jsou vsechny plus minus stejny - debil vstane, stezuje si, nikdo s nim nechce chodit a tak si porad steluje antenu. Vtipny to je celkem asi 6 sekund. Asi jako to bylo vtipne v mem zivote. Ano, i tuto dobu mam za sebou. Ted uz mam nastesti vetsi penis a na uctu vic nez petikilo.
Naskle.
July 15, 2025
These confessional graphic novels are just my weakness. Chester Brown remains the king for me, but who knows, maybe Joe Matt's vying for the title.
August 3, 2013
Meh. Matt's a fine enough draftsman, in that loose-limbed, almost boneless style so popular in underground/alternative work, and you have to give him points for honesty, assuming the "Joe Matt" he depicts in these comics is a reasonably accurate self-portrait. Given the rubbery, caricature-oriented nature of the art and the book's occasional claims that it does indeed exaggerate and caricature reality, it's hard to be sure how accurate the depiction is. At one point, characters in the comic complain about how they've been depicted by Matt in his comics, and the versions of "them" in the comic within the comic do indeed differ from their "reality" as presented in the comic. However, this simply draws attention to what seems to me to be something of a problem in this book, in that it seems to occupy some sort of medial space between genuine autobiography and caricature. The blend is uneasy, especially when Matt applies bigfoot comics tropes to such moments as his discovery that his landlord has had a stroke: funny in fiction, maybe, but disconcerting in something purporting to be autobiographical. What really torpedoes it, though, is that Matt as he depicts himself in the book is a pretty repellant guy. He does frequently basically acknowledge his douchiness, in scene after scene of dialogue with his buddies Seth and Chester Brown--Seth especially repeatedly calls him on his douchiness--but that doesn't really mitigate it. It's difficult to sympathize or empathize with a character who's so clearly the architect of his own loserdom. You need the genius of someone like Crumb to get away with this sort of self-lacerating display of your own essential unpleasantness as a human being. There are certainly amusing moments (e.g. the depiction of the Beguiling's Steve Solomos) but overall, it's a pretty depressing book.
September 16, 2012
Call me benighted, but a graphic novel for me can be a little easier to digest if the author, such as Joe Matt does in The Poor Bastard, identifies himself as a creator of comic books. The presumably autobiographical leading man of The Poor Bastard is a crap earner and cheap about it, a child adult, a low-rung practitioner of a lowbrow art, a jerk off sexual obsessive and a self-consuming narcissist whose primary source of dramatic conflict is a shortage of attributes or accomplishments sufficiently nourishing to feed his unrelenting ego appetite. The Poor Bastard lives and operates in a neighborhood of familiarity mapped out by the top-rank likes of Peter Bagge and Dan Clowes, and back catalogued in countless panels by uncountable lesser narrative artists. Joe Matt deserves a hand (raised in salute, not extended to shake) for drafting and marshaling a character who navigates out from the cul-de-sac of cliché to be true, singular, shy of sympathetic, and, you have to admit, if begrudgingly, in line with someone we all know, are, have been or easily could become.
September 24, 2023
Reread Sept '23 after Joe Matt's untimely passing. Still beautifully drawn and far more complex than its critics would have it, with a recurring theme of miscommunication and misapprehension running through every interpersonal relationship like a nagging itch. RIP, Joe Matt. You will be fondly remembered.
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A riveting "Warts is All" autobio graphic novel starring one of the biggest jerks ever, the cartoon alter ego of author/artist Joe Matt, a man with a major case of CSB (Compulsive Sexual Behavior), among many other "issues". I'd read all the editions of the comic book Peepshow (#'s 1-6) that make up "Poor Bastard" back in the 90s and I'd forgotten how gripping and morbidly, mortifyingly fascinating they are (as well as often very funny). Joe Matt is an excellent cartoonist and a fine, smart storyteller, but you may still feel the urge to kick his ass after reading this book.
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A riveting "Warts is All" autobio graphic novel starring one of the biggest jerks ever, the cartoon alter ego of author/artist Joe Matt, a man with a major case of CSB (Compulsive Sexual Behavior), among many other "issues". I'd read all the editions of the comic book Peepshow (#'s 1-6) that make up "Poor Bastard" back in the 90s and I'd forgotten how gripping and morbidly, mortifyingly fascinating they are (as well as often very funny). Joe Matt is an excellent cartoonist and a fine, smart storyteller, but you may still feel the urge to kick his ass after reading this book.
February 20, 2011
Joe Matt's bitterly honest portrayal of his shallow, masturbation addicted lifestyle is both hilarious and slightly off putting. It’s hard to root for a character who by his own admission is a small-minded, sexist loser however his truthfulness can sometimes be his most endearing quality.
January 16, 2013
It's really hard to distance yourself from a book and write about it objectively when the protagonist/antagonist/author is so completely abhorrent.
December 8, 2016
Jfc tbh
September 14, 2021
J'imagine bien que c'est pas totalement autobiographique mais quel gros connard quand même
September 29, 2025
The secret sauce to making good diary comics are ones where it isn't a question of reality or honesty, but how much of an unabashed piece of shit the main character is. Joe Matt doesn't even ride the line of self depreciation - he steps right over it to show the truest, worst version of himself. What's funny about this book is his pure, perverted id that constantly clashes against his ego. He is a shameless, penny-pinching, manipulative, wishy-washy, obsessively insecure guy who's somehow not just endearing, but earns respect by acknowledging all of those flaws. Maybe because it's just because of how pathetic he is, you can't help but feel a little bad for him, or maybe because I relate a little too much with the "pathetic loser comic book nerd" stereotype.
July 19, 2011
My friends lent me this book. I believe it might have been due to the fact that I am a shoe-in for the character 'Mary' in this book. Possibly because I have redhair, love music, am independent, free spirited, and my name is Mary.
The book was okay and gave me a good perspective in to the single male psych, however I will note I don't believe all single males act the way Joe (lead character) does in this book. I thought that Joe was lazy, self-centered, and unrealistic about his goals with women. I also felt that if he was to ever get with one of these girls at the point in time in which this book was based on, he would be satisfied with his lady, until he grew bored. Then he would treat her the way he did his main girlfriend and want some other girl.
I found it interesting that, from my experience, it's the belief of most men that they should be entitled to be desired by all women. In turn, a woman wants to always be demonstrated admiration from the one man she's with. Sounds like both sexes are continually seeking attention from one another, except for men, it might be from every women except for the one he's with. Hmm...
I found Joe to be lazy and not someone who will ever learn to appreciate a good thing when he has it. If it wasn't a graphic novel, I might not have gotten through it so quickly.
The book was okay and gave me a good perspective in to the single male psych, however I will note I don't believe all single males act the way Joe (lead character) does in this book. I thought that Joe was lazy, self-centered, and unrealistic about his goals with women. I also felt that if he was to ever get with one of these girls at the point in time in which this book was based on, he would be satisfied with his lady, until he grew bored. Then he would treat her the way he did his main girlfriend and want some other girl.
I found it interesting that, from my experience, it's the belief of most men that they should be entitled to be desired by all women. In turn, a woman wants to always be demonstrated admiration from the one man she's with. Sounds like both sexes are continually seeking attention from one another, except for men, it might be from every women except for the one he's with. Hmm...
I found Joe to be lazy and not someone who will ever learn to appreciate a good thing when he has it. If it wasn't a graphic novel, I might not have gotten through it so quickly.
April 23, 2013
Really funny, really well-drawn, and really entertaining. It seems like the biggest complaint that people have with Joe Matt is that he is just so lazy, self-obsessed, and a compulsive masturbator, that they don't like him as a person, and therefore can't read his work. Personally, I thought that made the book even better. Joe Matt is someone I don't think I would get along with in real life at all. If I saw him out in public, I'd just keep on walking. However, reading about him was a real treat. This is the story about a guy who doesn't learn, change, or grow, at all, throughout an entire book. The Joe Matt you're reading on page one, is the same Joe Matt your reading on the last page. Why is that a good thing? Well, to be honest it just made me feel better about myself! As messed up as my life be, at least I'm not as fucked up as Joe Matt.
I would have given this only three stars, but I feel like the art itself is worth a whole star. Joe Matt draws amazing faces. His use of black is something I aspire too, and his brush control, wow. It's a shame he isn't more productive because I love to see the level he could draw at now, if he had kept up with his cartooning.
I would have given this only three stars, but I feel like the art itself is worth a whole star. Joe Matt draws amazing faces. His use of black is something I aspire too, and his brush control, wow. It's a shame he isn't more productive because I love to see the level he could draw at now, if he had kept up with his cartooning.
May 4, 2011
Oh Joe Matt. I keep compulsively buying and reading your books, despite their dedication to chronicling what an unpleasant human you really are. I'm a critic of slice of life autobiographical comics, but there is something about Matt's bad-spirited chicanery and misery that makes his comics compelling.
I read Spent first and then backtracked to The Poor Bastard. The former chronicles Matt's slow decline into a porn-guzzling shut-in. Reading them in reverse is a little sad, especially when one considers the glimmers of good character in The Poor Bastard (he assists a neighbor having a stroke and rescues a pigeon). While even Matt's best-intentioned decision are tinged by his stubbornly unpleasant disposition, one sees, somewhere in there, a person who wants to do his best and be happy. Unfortunately Matt is too obsessed with objectifying "exotic" girls, saving money, wanking and collecting memorabilia to actually notice that the manner in which he conducts his life appears to make him profoundly unhappy.
Compulsive reading.
I read Spent first and then backtracked to The Poor Bastard. The former chronicles Matt's slow decline into a porn-guzzling shut-in. Reading them in reverse is a little sad, especially when one considers the glimmers of good character in The Poor Bastard (he assists a neighbor having a stroke and rescues a pigeon). While even Matt's best-intentioned decision are tinged by his stubbornly unpleasant disposition, one sees, somewhere in there, a person who wants to do his best and be happy. Unfortunately Matt is too obsessed with objectifying "exotic" girls, saving money, wanking and collecting memorabilia to actually notice that the manner in which he conducts his life appears to make him profoundly unhappy.
Compulsive reading.
November 11, 2017
Recopila las 6 primeras entregas de "Peepshow", donde Joe Matt relata su miserable vida sin atisbo alguno de pudor u orgullo. El cómic autobiográfico tiene por lo general mucho de autocomplacencia pero el caso de Matt es diferente ya que se retrata a sí mismo de forma tan cruda que resulta opuesto a la vanidad. Sin embargo, de alguna manera, eres capaz de empatizar con sus despreciables deseos y obsesivas preocupaciones de una manera que acabas formando parte de esa selecta familia disfuncional que forma con sus amigos dibujantes Seth y Chester Brown. A diferencia de éstos, el dibujo de Matt -más grotesco- toma mucho más del comix underground y sus historias son mucho menos referenciales, pero todo eso cuadra muy bien con lo que cuenta, con el mundo que relata, con lo que tiene en la cabeza.
July 9, 2007
Joe Matt is perhaps best known for his, at times, excruciatingly autobiographical comix. Few details of his life escape depiction in this, a collection of the first six issues of his comic Peepshow. The story here, interspersed between the minutiae of Matt's habits and random thoughts, concerns Matt's efforts to obtain a girlfriend (preferably a skinny, young Asian). Any summary of Matt's work is only going to sound tedious; the real pleasure here is Matt's cartooning (his depictions of facial expressions are delightful) and the uncompromising honesty of his storytelling. You may not want to see everything Matt shows you in these pages, but you won't be able to say that he is hiding much from his readers.
November 11, 2017
As absurd, overwrought and too-much-information style disturbing as Joe Matt’s work is, damn if it isn’t compelling. Whether it’s the sick pleasure you get in reading about someone else’s misery (and often of the sexual kind) or it’s just that in some strange way his self-loathing and self-hatred is somehow relatable on some deeply vulnerable layer, I don’t know. I do know I read this book in a day and found it hard to put down. Do I want to read MORE Joe Matt any time soon? Not really, but if he has his way, I’m sure I will.
March 11, 2019
Ah, an insight into the mind of a proto-incel type. Joe Matt's comics don't paint him in a good light, but that's what makes them so interesting. This is the story of a loser in 90s Toronto, and it's bleakly honest in its portrayal. He confesses to exaggerating and half truths in this one, but even still it remains more true than a lot of other biographical comics. Props to Joe, the poor bastard.
January 20, 2025
Joe Matt at his worst, which is also his best. Funny that he has admitted to making himself look worse in his comics than he maybe actually behaves. This means, aside from admittedly stretching the bounds of memoir, he sees himself as worse than he actually is, which is somehow more demented. Truly distasteful guy, but great memoir comics. Rip.
April 13, 2009
As one of my coworkers said, there is something about these comics that remind me of Woody Allen. Perhaps the level of self-depreciation. But I really love Joe Matt's drawing style, facial expressions, and when he expresses indecision or shock by drawing his character with two heads. Love that!
February 7, 2008
if you like to masterbate then this is the comic for you. and if you like comics then you probably like to masterbate.
October 8, 2017
This book made me laugh, but damn, the main character IS a bastard.
March 5, 2019
I can't help but love reading about Joe Matt and his ugly existence.
It's somehow relaxing reading this unflinching autobiography of a man unwilling to learn from his mistakes, ever. A great example is the opening story about his obsession with some random beautiful girl from his neighborhood. It becomes so excruciatingly cringe worthy watching as his girlfriend becomes the beautiful girl's co-worker prompting Joe to start plotting a way to win over a girl who shares zero of his interests, has no idea he even exists, and already has a boyfriend. Eventually she does notice Joe, but only as the creepy boyfriend of a girl she barely knows. It's the perfect example of the kind of guy who cries to his buddies because he thinks he deserves a supermodel girlfriend even though he's a terrible person who doesn't even deserve a girlfriend period.
Predictably his girlfriend Trish, gets fed up and breaks it off with Joe once and for all. Joe is single again and living on his own. The rooming house where he lives is so perfectly depressing. Every detail is more bleak than the one before. He's not only selfish, immature, delusional about women, and addicted to porn, but he's also extremely cheap! The real wonder is that he ever had a girlfriend at all. Joe's painful bravado when it comes to lining up new women to date is a joy to read. It's probably one of the most honest depictions of an extremely stunted man/boy I've ever read. The artwork is so much better than his Peepshow miniature drawings from early in his career. Some of the best panels are the ones in which his two cartoonists friends, Seth and Chester Brown (great artists and storytellers in their own right) really let Joe know what a cheap, misogynistic. self centered creep he really is, but within the bounds of true friendship. It's a disturbingly addictive read, I've read it many many times over the years I've owned it. I would give it 5 stars, but I wouldn't want to encourage Joe to remain such an unrepentant asshole.
It's somehow relaxing reading this unflinching autobiography of a man unwilling to learn from his mistakes, ever. A great example is the opening story about his obsession with some random beautiful girl from his neighborhood. It becomes so excruciatingly cringe worthy watching as his girlfriend becomes the beautiful girl's co-worker prompting Joe to start plotting a way to win over a girl who shares zero of his interests, has no idea he even exists, and already has a boyfriend. Eventually she does notice Joe, but only as the creepy boyfriend of a girl she barely knows. It's the perfect example of the kind of guy who cries to his buddies because he thinks he deserves a supermodel girlfriend even though he's a terrible person who doesn't even deserve a girlfriend period.
Predictably his girlfriend Trish, gets fed up and breaks it off with Joe once and for all. Joe is single again and living on his own. The rooming house where he lives is so perfectly depressing. Every detail is more bleak than the one before. He's not only selfish, immature, delusional about women, and addicted to porn, but he's also extremely cheap! The real wonder is that he ever had a girlfriend at all. Joe's painful bravado when it comes to lining up new women to date is a joy to read. It's probably one of the most honest depictions of an extremely stunted man/boy I've ever read. The artwork is so much better than his Peepshow miniature drawings from early in his career. Some of the best panels are the ones in which his two cartoonists friends, Seth and Chester Brown (great artists and storytellers in their own right) really let Joe know what a cheap, misogynistic. self centered creep he really is, but within the bounds of true friendship. It's a disturbingly addictive read, I've read it many many times over the years I've owned it. I would give it 5 stars, but I wouldn't want to encourage Joe to remain such an unrepentant asshole.
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