Hey everyone,

So, here's a portion of an interview I did with a British, alternative arts magazine called DANGEROUS INK. It appears in issue 4, which should be available in Barnes & Noble right now around the end of July.

And thanks again to Tom who sent me some REALLY great porn dvds for doing this interview!!

A quick side-note: the porn was SO good, I decided to see if I could achieve 3 orgasms in under 3 minutes while watching it. And I ALMOST did it! I kept watching the timer on my dvd player, but the pressure was too much for me. I achieved the third orgasm at the 3:20 mark.

Someday, I plan to attempt 5 orgasms in under 5 minutes. I'm just waiting for a full moon to put me in the proper mood and then I'll -- WHAT? What's that? QUIT JERKING OFF AND GET TO WORK?? That's amazing ... how did you transmit that message to me while I'm typing this? Truly amazing ...

Alright, I'll put my "training" aside and resume work. The Olympics are coming up though ...

Am I still typing?

Alright, "enjoy" this partial interview!!

SO LONG, SUCKERS!!

~Joe





FROM A FAIR-WEATHER FRIEND AS A KID, TO A MALADJUSTED, PORN ADDICTED ADULT - JOE MATT HAS OPENED THE DOORS TO HIS DEEPEST, DARKEST SECRETS FOR EVERYONE TO SEE; AND FOR THE LIFE ME, I JUST CAN'T LOOK AWAY. TEXT BY NULSH.

DI: The intro to this article uses the panel from 'The Poor Bastard', when you're confronted by a reader who recognizes himself (and his girlfriend) in your comic and is less than pleased. I remember reading this and squirming. That must've been awkward. Did this actually happen?

JM: It did happen, but not exactly the way I portrayed it. And this is indicative of many scenes in my comics. The germ of what's being shown is factual, but the execution rarely is. In fact, technically, it NEVER is. Everything's manipulated for effect; from dialogue to gestures to timing.

An example might be the scene you described above. In reality, the information conveyed may very well have all taken place on the phone, whereas in my comic, I chose to show it as a confrontation on the street. The actual facts are irrelevant to me. It's the emotional content that guides my instincts, regarding what to show and how to show it.

For the record though, I think that character, Andy, did confront me on the street, alone, with neither his girlfriend, nor Seth and Chester, present. And, he was most certainly less upset and more polite about making his point. In fact, I can guarantee that he didn't smoosh a copy of my comic book onto my head.

DI: I think the reason I was interested in this particular incident was that it was so convincing, therefore uncomfortable (to me anyway!). Did you script this out as a 'what if?' or was it a stream of consciousness after the incident?

JM: I never script out any of the scenes in my comics. I make notes that usually consist of a line or two of dialogue, but that's pretty much it. My preference is to work directly on the finished art as I write/sketch panels on the spot.

With "The Poor Bastard," I was writing completely by instinct - and a scene could run anywhere from a single panel to quite a few. Whereas, with "Spent," I was consciously composing long, uninterrupted scenes and trying to make the dialogue feel as natural as possible, while still cramming in portions of my pre-written notes wherever possible. In fact, cramming in the notes was the whole point to me ... as opposed to something like showing Seth ordering meatloaf or another cup of coffee.

DI: The main thing I take/get from your strips (apart from laughs) is this sense of horrendous honesty - from your portrayal as a 'bratty' kid' (sorry) in Fair Weather to being less than easy to live with in 'The Poor Bastard'. When and why did you decide to do autobiographical comics?

JM: I decided to do autobiographical comics, with earnest, around the summer of 1987; a mere month before I met Trish, my ex-girlfriend who appeared in my comics.

The genre spoke to me, or rather called to me, for a number of reasons ... the most prominent one, probably being the influence of Robert Crumb's work.

And perhaps equally influential, was Art Spiegelman's 'MAUS.' The near-perfect aspect of that book, as an artifact, thrilled and inspired me in a way that continues to this day.

But there's also things like: I wanted all my future work to have a consistency and connection to my past work, so autobio seemed a natural, logical choice. And also, I felt (and still do) very incapable of writing fiction. My interest in creating characters, or scenarios beyond my actual experiences, doesn't exist in the slightest. Besides, I truly believe every artist is drawing on personal experience, thoughts, attitudes, pain, and whatever ... so why bother disguising it or dressing it up? In other words, I'm too lazy to go in that direction. Ha-ha.

DI: Do you still keep in contact with Trish? What was her reaction to her portrayal in your comics?

JM: I have no contact with Trish whatsoever. She had never cared for my portrayal of her in my comics, but ultimately, I don't think that was what doomed our relationship. In retrospect, I think we were both just too young and needed to experience other things and people.



DI: Time for my geeky question, it took me a while to read the original Peep Show strips, as I found the pages really busy – good, but I like space, and I found them a bit congested. Through time the page layouts change to give more room, which I felt made a huge difference – the art in Fair Weather was great – really slick and 'roomy' - any particular reason for the change?

JM: Well, I consciously try to vary my approach with each new book when I begin it. The older 'Peepshow: The Cartoon Diary' strips were dense and packed because I originally envisioned that collection to be as large as 'RAW' magazine. (I later decided to make the book smaller once I learned how hard it was to sell such large books.) Also, I felt an urgency to convey a lot of information in those early strips. I was trying to lay a foundation for the work that would follow.

With 'The Poor Bastard,' I consciously stuck to a 6-panel grid with no narration. The fewer panels per page allowed me to get more detailed with the art in a way that I hadn't previously. In hindsight though, I'm quite disappointed with a lot of that art, particularly my attempts at mimicking greys.

And with 'Fair Weather,' I chose to work even larger; hence the more open white spaces. Also, I stuck to a 3-tier page formula, but never allowed it to become a grid. This extra bit of freedom was enjoyable. But working so damn large, especially with a small brush (I just couldn't go larger!) was a recipe for misery.

So, with 'Spent,' I went down to almost 8"x10" for the original art, with the intention that I'd work "size as," the way Spiegelman did with 'MAUS.' Also, I switched to an 8-panel grid, as well as unbroken scenes of time that played out for the length of an entire comic issue.

But this too proved extremely unpleasant for me. I used a tiny, tiny brush and ended up inking like it was brain surgery. *sigh*