Peepshow #13
By Joe Matt
Published by Drawn and Quarterly
There's some kind of irony in this current storyline, which finds Joe Matt depicting himself as more pathetic and sad than at any other point in the series, even as his cartooning has refined itself to a sublime beauty.
This entire issue is a conversation between Matt and his real-life friends and colleagues Seth and Chester Brown. Seth's work in Palooka-Ville appears to have had a profound influence on Matt's approach to his art, which has changed greatly since the early work seen in the collection Peepshow, or the early comics of the same name, collected in the Poor Bastard TPB. The cover of this issue is simply gorgeous, with a lush confidence of line that soothes the eye. In contrast to the beautiful art, though, is the conversation inside, in which an increasingly disturbing (if not disturbed Matt seems to tick off each of his increasingly-consuming character flaws. His cheapness is evident in the way he skips a meal here despite clearly being hungry, and his obsession with porn videos dominates the conversation, despite Seth's wishes to the contrary.
Matt reveals that he has spent nearly 200 hours making edited porn videos, taking what he feels are the "best scenes," and editing out as much of the men in the videos as possible. As compelling and entertaining as this is (and I believe Peepshow is a great comic, no doubt about it), this storyline is damned disturbing in its implications. Joe basically spends his entire life locked in a room, pissing in jars to avoid his housemates, and masturbating ten times a day. These are the people you cringe over when you hear about them on the news. If this is all fiction, and Christ, I hope it is, it's an amazing study of a man descending into a sick obsession that is threatening to destroy him even as he makes money making comics about his illness.
One particularly bizarre thing I noticed in this issue is that, perhaps for the first time, a girl Joe is attracted to (a teenager in a restaurant) is not even shown "on-camera." Previously, Joe's girlfriends and attractive women on the street were shown in the cartoon. Now, Joe seems to exclude them, either subconsciously or consciously, as if real women are now so far away from what he wants out of life that he is motivated not to depict them in his comics.
Even the funniest line in the book, involving Seth's evaluation of where the pee-jar will eventually lead, is overshadowed by the grim reality that he is probably right about the spiral Matt appears to cheerfully be headed down.
On the inside back cover, Cerebus creator Dave Sim writes a long letter to Matt, and it comes off as a well-intentioned warning that Matt is definitely headed into some scary territory in his life, if not in his art.
All I can say is, when Dave Sim comes off as the most reasoned and intellegent voice in a discussion, you're in deep fucking trouble.
As art, as comics, this is fantastic stuff. As a fellow human being, Joe Matt's current works scares the shit out of me. I hope to hell he's making this all up, but I strongly, strongly doubt it. Get some help, Joe. Grade: 5/5.