Peepshow

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Honest
Review: At first I wasn't so sure about Joe Matt but he's really grown on me. He's so painfully honest about himself that it's amazing. Especially the story where he beat up his girlfriend. That was shocking that he included it in his comix... most would edit something like that out. He has a wonderful grasp on the stuggles of long-term relationships - and he manages to keep it pretty damn funny at the same time. His more recent comics about his problems(?) with porn are wonderful too. Any man who isn't embarrased to print a 10 page comic of himself dubbing his friends' porno movies is a saint in my book. Wonderful.

Rating:
Summary: Joe Matt's Angst Ridden Peep Show
Review: Comic artist Joe Matt's first comic strips are collected in this fantastic volume. Included is an intimate look at Joe's nervous world of girl troubles and toilet humor. Joe dicusses his perosnal relationships and how he destroys them, exlains how to move one's bowels with absolute stealth and includes a how-to guide for cheap skates. This is by far some of the best comic strip work out there today, but be warned, Joe Matt is R. Crumb inspired so be ready for this raw peep into Joe Matt's private life.

Rating:
Summary: Believe it or not , It's all true
Review: I loved this book. Joe is being more honest than most of you might believe. I grew up in that "small suburb of Philadelphia" directly across that street from Joe, and I have to tell you that the stories are real. It was like reliving my childhood reading Peepshow. That underground fort across the street from 7-11...my older brothers helped build it. He was as germ-phobic, and nerotic in real life as he is in Peepshow.

I am however disappointed that my brothers and I never got a mention in the book.

Rating:
Summary: Believe it or not , It's all true
Review: I loved this book. Joe is being more honest than most of you might believe. I grew up in that "small suburb of Philadelphia" directly across that street from Joe, and I have to tell you that the stories are real. It was like reliving my childhood reading Peepshow. That underground fort across the street from 7-11...my older brothers helped build it. He was as germ-phobic, and nerotic in real life as he is in Peepshow.

I am however disappointed that my brothers and I never got a mention in the book.

Rating:
Summary: This is JUNK. Gloomy, self-involved JUNK
Review: The problem with taking Harvey Pekar's comic works as a guide and trying to do the same thing is that it requires a huge talent--you must do it exactly right for it to work. Joe Matt shows us how it ISN'T done.
Pekar chronicles his own life, warts and all. Joe Matt can't see past the warts, and has come to the erroneous conclusion that simply recording his problems and fears equals *A*R*T*. It ain't that easy!
Pekar, although he writes about himself, also pays attention to the people around him. They're forever saying things that you find yourself remembering. Joe Matt's view of life is adolescently centered on himself, and everyone around him is reduced to shallow caricatures. Yes, he is self-aware of this, but that doesn't make the end result worth reading.