Joe Matt, the acclaimed cartoonist behind Peepshow, has died. He was 60 years old. According to an update posted to MariNaomi’s Patreon account, Matt passed away on Monday following a heart attack at his art table. Matt had apparently been experiencing health problems for some time, but was unable to afford a trip to the doctor, according to the post. Matt’s Peep Show started as a strip, but was eventually collected by Drawn & Quarterly. The autobiographical comics he wrote generally depicted himself as cheap, sexually frustrated, and always troubled.
Matt’s death first came to light after a Facebook post from his longtime friend and collaborator Matt Wagner. The pair collaborated on an issue of Mage, where Matt was the colorist. He would go on to fulfill that role in a number of Grendel stories, including the first Grendel/Batman crossover.
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You can see Wagner’s tribute below.
Matt’s work, nominated for several Eisner awards and other comics-industry accolades, was shockingly frank about his own shortcomings, but its fixation on sex and pornography drew accusations of misogyny. Those critiques were certainly felt by Matt, who regularly acknowledged his comics and their impact within the comics themselves. Friends and fellow indie artists like Seth and Chester Brown were regular fixtures in Peepshow.
“I’m a voyeur and I’m trying to make the book I would most enjoy reading,” Matt said in 2007. “I would imagine other voyeurs are interested if it’s done well. I think autobiographical comics have been given a bad name simply because of the fact that I’ve focused a lot on porn and masturbation. I feel like that’s colored the whole genre for some people. Not every autobiographical cartoonist is doing that. I’m following Crumb’s lead where he explores his obsessions, at least with women.”
According to Matt’s friend MariNaomi, he had been experiencing health issues and chest pains for some time, but had not visited a doctor, possibly due to financial hardship. She shared a number of anecdotes about Matt and their relationship over at her Patreon.
Matt’s work was fairly limited — only four collections of Peepshow exist, and the last was released back in 2007. Still, he had an outsized pop culture impact given that relatively limited amount of material. Futurama co-creator David X. Cohen tried to develop a Peepshow pilot for HBO at one point, and Matt Groening has also been known to sing Matt’s praises. According to Bleeding Cool, Succession creator Jesse Armstrong and TV writer Sam Bain named their series Peep Show after Matt’s, and the two have some shared DNA, even though the one is not an adaptation of the other.
Our condolences go out to Matt’s family, friends, collaborators, and fans during this difficult time.
