The Poor Bastard [Paperback]

Joe Matt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997

Meet Joe Matt, a talented cartoonist with strong ideas about how life should be lived. He makes no apologies and never compromises. Well, almost never. Actually, Joe Matt is a painfully honest man who doesn't mind admitting - in print, in cartoon form - that he has one or two flaws. Just minor ones. "The Poor Bastard" is his neurotic, compelling and utterly shameless account of some of the most personal details of his life. With the timing of a stand-up comedian, he leaves no aspect untouched, from the disintegration of personal relationships to the grim realities of life in a Toronto rooming house and his obsession with pornography - or, as Joe prefers, "nature films". Watch as he alienates lovers and friends in a candid and hilarious story about his ruthless quest for a woman who understands him and meets his ridiculous standards. This is Joe Matt: neurotic, compulsive, cheap, self-absorbed - human. And funny.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Deftly satirizing his overblown reactions to life`s defeats, Matt is a master of self-parody. -- Applied Arts

Hot Cartoonist! -- Rolling Stone

Joe Matt uses clean lines and excellent caricaturing to drive his stories of emotional woe. -- The Minnesota Daily --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

In 1987, tired of coloring dopey superhero comics for a living, Joe Matt started writing and drawing a "diary", a torrid, often humorous page-by-page account of his daily life. These single-page comics were later published in various magazines, including Drawn & Quarterly, and by 1992 Matt finally had his own comic book series, Peepshow, devoted completely to his peculiar form of autobiographical angst. Matt was born in 1963 in Philadelphia where, evidently, he never learned the meaning of embarrassment. Throughout Peepshow, he gives us an utterly shameless account of what is, more often than not, some of the great failures of his life, from the gradual disintegration of his earlier relationship, to his later attempts at finding a new girlfriend. Matt's unflattering, although not inaccurate portrayal of himself in his stories have provoked one of the liveliest letter columns in comics, where a typical reader writes: "No wonder you're all alone - you're just a pathetic fucking loser!". At one point in his Peepshow series, Joe Matt left his contemporary troubles behind and focused on something more low-key, a story about his childhood in a Philadelphia suburb. The story, "Fair Weather", will soon be collected in book form by Drawn & Quarterly. Beginning with the release of the 11th issue of "Peepshow", Matt has returned to examining his modern-day foibles in a new storyline that promises to be almost 300 pages in length. If there's any complaints about not being able to stand him for that long, there's always the nice "pictures" to appreciate: with the new red and black two-color printing on tinted paper, Joe Matt has never looked better! Matt's first book, also called Peepshow, was first published in 1992 by Kitchen Sink Press and went on to sell over 10,000 copies in three printings. A new printing was published by Drawn & Quarterly in 1999. His second book, The Poor Bastard, collected the story from the first six issues of his comic book series and was published by Drawn & Quarterly in 1997. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: LPC Group (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1896597041
• ISBN-13: 978-1896597041
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,203,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sincere not-so-sincere comic autobiography, July 17, 1999

By 

Filippo (Cordenons, Pitcairn) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Poor Bastard (Paperback)

Joe Matt's "The Poor Bastard" is really a one-of-a-kind autobiographic work because instead of narrating past-events it is almost a diary of current events, where the author is not afraid of telling us even the most embarassing details of his and his friends' life! If you thought that ED TV was a great idea for a film... well this is the real thing! Since this is a collection of a serialized work, as the book goes on you even have a chance to see the angry reactions of the people that Joe Matt exposed in the book as they read about themselves. And in the process you will discover that maybe Joe wasn't honestly telling you ALL the truth after all... Joe Matt is an ego-maniac, cheater, liar and egoistic creep but oh-so human.... and you may find yourself relating to this "poor bastard"'s everyday misadventures. Buy it, you won't regret it. And if you do you have my e-mail address to complain!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grim, hilarious and compulsively readable, July 24, 2004

By 

Anon: "palinurus" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poor Bastard (Paperback)

Joe Matt is at it again. No, not self-abuse, unless turning yourself into a comic book character qualifies as such. Matt's published another confessional, book-length collection about the life of one Joe Matt. Unlike Peepshow, which I went back and re-read after reading this one, there's not much youthful ebullience and stylistic experimentation in Poor Bastard. Nevertheless, like all Matt's stuff, the book is compulsively readable.

The style and the subject matter are pretty straight ahead. No longer using a zillion small panels and experimental styles, The Poor Bastard begins with the last stages of the relationship between Joe and Trish, who are unrelentingly and grimly out of phase with each other. After Trish inevitably breaks up with him, Matt is plunged into a hellish, self-conscious existence pondering his hang-ups, aging body, mortality, inability to meet women, obsession with porn...

It's a familiar story. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy feels trapped, treats girl like cr*p and takes her for granted. Girl breaks up with boy and moves on. Boy can't get over it. That doesn't sound like a prescription for a successful work of art, but Poor Bastard succeeds. Matt pulls it off with his all around excellent 'tooning and storytelling. He has a fantastic sense of pace. Good book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Like watching a video-taped recording of someone's life, May 23, 2000

By 

Pye (Irvine, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poor Bastard (Paperback)

Joe Matt's _The Poor Bastard_ is one of the most entertaining comics I have ever laid eyes on. Painfully honest, funny, and engaging, Matt chronicles his relationships with women, one of his fans, his friends, and his sexual fantasies. _The Poor Bastard_ beautifully portrays the anguish of human relationships. _The Poor Bastard_ is a book well-worth reading.