Peepshow: The Cartoon Diary Joe Matt

This will be the first (and last) graphic novel I purchase by Joe Matt. If you want to read endless descriptions of the author's masturbation and porn excesses, this is the book for you. I'm not a prude (I like R. Crumb) but it gets really tedious here. In addition, I found the miniscule art and mega-text blocks annoying and difficult to read. I ended up leaving it in a little lending library...with a note of apology attached for whoever took it.

I guess this is supposed to be the new breed. People with real strong personalities and who are obsessed with a particular technical specialty. I still think these people will never be that statistically significant. I'm happy to just stay a passive guy enjoying life as it comes. I've always kind of felt like a worthless wastoid so it doesn't bother me that much.For vicarious living enjoyment this falls pretty flat. It's so repetitive. The two things he repeats throughout are his struggle with pornography/masturbation and his stinginess. The porn/masturbation thing is totally tedious and I was ready to throw the book against the wall by page 60. Fortunately, the author shifts to other topics for the last 30 pages. And his cheapness was also a bummer to read about. This really does veer over into flagrant narcissism a good deal of the time.I did get a few laughs out of this and the author is a good cartoonist. But I won't be buying any more of his books. So in that respect the comic was a failure because you really get the feeling he wants you to care about whether he ever overcomes his problems and becomes a successful cartoonist and settles down with his girlfriend.I bought this used and the last 20 pages were falling out which I blame on the publisher for giving it a cheap binding. You should be able to open a big book like this and lay it almost flat. But if you do that too much the glue binding with break and the pages will fall out.

I gave these cartoon story books as father's day gifts comocal

Being a fan of Matt's work, I can only praise "Peepshow", his lifetime masterpiece "telling it all", always narcissistic and never self-indulging.

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.

Peepshow is Joe Matt's brilliant debut--and it has all the growing pangs a great comic should have: It's sometimes awkward, squeaky, and the inch by inch panels are sometimes a pain to squint through. But this is great stuff. Smart, unafraid, dirty, and hilarious, Matt tells the story of his background, personality and new relationship with girlfriend Trish. Most are one-pagers, with "filler" cartoons on Boob the cat, but there are extended episodes without the requisite "punchline," most memorably on how he struggles in resisting porn and masturbation, both of which Trish doesn't approve. (Sorry, I can't be euphemistic. If you don't want to read about a white kid from Philly masturbating, this comic is probably not for you.) Best of all is the guest comic by Seth at the back of the book that turns the autobiography on its head. Seth confirms and tells you Matt's actually worse than how he presents himself!This is NOT sentimental stuff--this isn't Jeffrey Brown--but it isn't offensive, and thankfully there isn't much nudity, either. I definitely don't recommend this for your kids (with a title like Peepshow, who would?). And unlike another reviewer, I'd say intelligent women with a sense of humor would love this too. Unlike Matt's later work, his adolescent despair doesn't bog this book down. Peepshow is unexpected, frank, coarse and fun.

Great, great stuff. Joe's writing and art really brings you into the story and gets you attached to his (seemingly bizzare, pathetic) life, makes you feel sympathy for what he and his girl are going through. The characters are wonderful. His life, his relationships with his friends, girlfriend, relatives--all interesting and, as he presents it, fun.I read a lot of "indie" (D&G, Fantagraphics, etc.) comics so I'm sorry I had to come across Joe in a used bookstore. He should be up there with Bagge, Seth, Bechdel, and all those other great autobiographic comic artists.Please buy this book and encourage him to write more. Also, so he doesn't have to color superhero comics anymore.

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.

While the sequel: the poor bastard exposes Joe Matt even less relenting, this first volume is almost as funny.Following joe matts life we meet both not so noble thoughts, arguments with friends and girlfriends, unbearably intimate revelations(you won't believe any examples), watch him agonize about renting pron, followed but masturbation binges and so on. You'll love it, because even if Matt appears thouroughly unpleasant and selfish, he's so honest about his motives. that you cant help but love it. Oh, and the book concludes with seth giving us his 2 cents on the subject of the character of Joe Matt.If you like The Office, or autobiographical comics in general, this is a must.

une véritable autobiographie en comics parfois déroutante, souvent criante de vérité. L'ouvrage vaut plus pour ses dialogues que pour les dessins "assez simples"... et il faut être prêt à lire: les vignettes sont petites et assez régulièrement 50% de la vignette est consacrée au dialogue. L'auteur se moque de lui même lorsque, sur une page, il indique que la loupe n'est pas fournie. Il reste qu'il y a un coté voyeur dans tout cela: on découvre le personnage avec ses faiblesses, ses lâchetés, ses plaisirs, ses amours... on a parfois l'impression d'assister à une psychanalyse en direct et je ne serais pas surpris que la bd puisse être utilisée pour l'analyse! une lecture tout à fait intéressante si on sait à quoi s'attendre.

La mia copia era rilegata male per cui dopo qualche settimana ha cominciato a cedere e mi si è spaginata tutta. Oltretutto consiglierei i libri più maturi di questo autore.