Cartoonist Joe Matt passed away on Monday. In life, he represented both the best and worst tropes of autobiographical comics. Even when people in the nineties were labelling alternative cartoonists telling stories about their lives as naval gazing whiners obsessing over masturbation and other bodily functions, Joe Matt never changed his style. His angry self-pitying character in his Peep Show comic was laid out for the audience to wonder at, sometimes in disgust or with pity for him. His final book, Spent, was too much for a lot of people. It could only be classified as either an act of bravery or obsession or both.
Joe Matt never wavered from who he was, even if he might have wanted to. As someone who also can't help being who they are, the life he depicted in his stories was equal parts cautionary and inspiring. I hope he is at peace now and that his body of work (including anything else he was working on) survives him.
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