It was nice to see Trish again, if only briefly.
I read Peepshow #15 and it made me sad.
This is the final issue of Joe Matt’s autobiographical comic, released last week from Fantagraphics…final, due to Matt’s passing last year at a too-young age (though I’m sure he’d argue about the “young” part).
If you’re looking for a neat wrap-up to Matt’s comic book life as portrayed in Peepshow over the decades (having started publication in 1992), you’re not going to get one. In fact, one of the stories within is titled “Maggie – Part One” and there is no part two extant, though there are mentions of her in further stories and you can probably get a sense of what a Part Two might have been.
Another throughline in this issue is Matt’s move to Los Angeles, pending a potential television adaptation of his comics for HBO. While there’s a lot of grist for Matt’s unique mill here, there was obviously more to be told that we’ll not get (especially since the story dealing specifically on the topic also gets a “Part One” heading, no “Part Two” present). The ultimate conclusion is known — these stories take place years ago, and there is no Peepshow TV show now — but I’m sure Matt would’ve had more to say about the experience.
The only segment of the book that sorta feels like a final wrap-up is his brief summaries of all his sexual relationships to date. And this, as well as everything else in the book, is told with his trademark near-cringeworthy and hilarious bluntness and honesty. He never flinches from making sure his thought processes fully transparent, his mistakes completely exposed.
And I want to make sure that’s clear…it’s still funny. It’s still Joe Matt being the most Joe Matt, with all the cheapness and obsessiveness and selfishness completely on display. Even as he worries about his aging (40 in these stories, set 20 years ago) and his pursuit of some sort of financial and emotional stability, it remains told in a way that amuses in the Mighty Joe Matt Manner.
But it’s still sad, reading these strips and knowing this is the last chapter to his own story. I keep harping on “conclusions” and “wrapping up” in this little overview, even though obviously I know in my head that Matt couldn’t have realized this was going to be his last comic book. But my heart can’t help but want more.
And readers of comic books have an ingrained expectation that a final issue is going to tie everything up in a little bow, or that it ends on pithy note, gathering up your narrative experience in some clever way.
Peepshow #15 doesn’t do that. It gives you one more entertaining piece in the ongoing saga of Joe Matt, just like every previous issue did. It’s just sad that we’re not getting a #16, no matter how long we’re willing to wait.
Never bought any ‘Peep Show’ before but I’m hoping to pick this up.
So strange to me to see this from Fanta and not D+Q. He was so associated with D+Q for so long. I’m sure there’s no difference in content or anything, but it’s just… weird to me/
what’s been most sad for me is that almost nothing by Joe is available for purchase anymore. I still have the poster he sold of How to be a Cheapskate – a treasured possession.
“the poster he sold of How to be a Cheapskate”.
I’m part Scottish- I don’t NEED a POSTER.
I had the same emotions. I was elated to be reading a new Peepshow, then realized when I finished, “That’s all folks.” I still have every strip and recently shared a post with the complete comic run.
At least I have new issues of HATE to look forward to lately.
I thought that first issue of Hate was pretty rough. Nothing about it made me look forward to #2.
“It gives you one more entertaining piece in the ongoing saga of Joe Matt, just like every previous issue did. It’s just sad that we’re not getting a #16, no matter how long we’re willing to wait.”
This is about as accurate an analogy for the fleeting nature of life as anything else I can think of.