Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Fantagraphics | Tagged: Joe Matt, peepshow

Fantagraphics To Publish A Final Peepshow From The Late Joe Matt

Fantagraphics To Publish A Final Fifteenth Issue Of Peepshow From The Late Joe Matt in July 2024

One year after his death, and seventeen years after the previous issue, Joe Matt's Peepshow will see a fifteenth issue published by Fantagraphics in July Joe Matt died of a heart attack, and was at his drawing board when it happened.

Peepshow #15
JOE MATT
On sale date: July 17, 2024
When cartoonist Joe Matt unexpectedly passed away in 2023 at the age of sixty, it appeared that any hope of seeing new work from the master cartoonist would die with him. Matt, notoriously slow, had been working on a new issue for 17 years – since the previous issue was published in 2006. After his death, it was discovered that the entire issue was complete aside from four uninked pages. Thanks to Matt's cartoonist friends, Peepshow #15 will finally see print, and it's an event worthy of celebration. The issue is quintessential Matt, as if he had never left us: utterly shameless, completely self-absorbed, crafted with an exhibitionist's enthusiasm for his favorite subject, himself. Detailing his move to Los Angeles in 2003—"trapped in a world he never made!"—to pursue an ill-fated HBO series. Peepshow #15 is Joe Matt at his Joe Mattiest.

Originally a series of comic strips, Peepshow was published as a comic book by Drawn & Quarterly from 1991 and saw the creator win multiple awards including Eisner Awards. An incredibly raw and self-critical look at the author's views of life, women, pornography and being part of a cartoonist community, it was one of a number of successful slice-of-life comics of the time, including the work of Robert Crumb, Peter Bagge, Seth, Roberta Gregory, Ed Brubaker, Dan Clowes and Chester Brown, a number of whom would appear in Peepshow. It was criticised for being heavily sexist, but no criticism that the book wouldn't make towards itself.

Matt was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before illegally moving to Canada in 1988, until 20o2, a famed customer of Toronto's The Beguiling comic store. when he returned to the USA and lived in Los Angeles. Joe Matt's work also inspired the likes of Matt Groening and his Futurama co-creator David X Cohen who tried to make a TV pilot based on the first Peepshow collection, The Poor Bastard, that did not come to fruition. Peepshow also inspired television writers Sam Bain and Succession creator Jesse Armstrong to name their own first TV show looking at the point-of-view lives of two flatmates in London, Peep Show with issues and topics familiar to the comic's readers. As well as Peepshow, Joe Matt also worked as a colourist, including Matt Wagner's Grendel and Mage comics at Comico as well as Johnny Quest, This would also lead to him colouring the Batman/Grendel crossover, and the Neil Gaiman/Bernie Mireault/Matt Wagner Riddler story.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!