
Wow! Fantagraphics really did Joe right with this edition of the complete collected Peepshow. This 464 page hardcover collecting all 15 issues of the comic book series is crisply printed on the perfect paper stock, with covers matching their original glossy stock on the earlier issues, and cardstock on the later issues. Then it closes out with an afterword by Diana Schutz that is just what the collection needed for an appropriate closure: equal parts historically aware, intellectually incisive and heartflelt. This collection liteerally couldn't be any better. Kudos to Designer C Hwang, the production head Ben Horak, and editors Sammy Harkham and Eric Reynolds.
All that is said presuming a familiarity with this series and Joe Matt, the long time cartoonist and member of the Torotoninan Three Mustketeers of Comics and Cartooning™ along with Chester Brown and Seth, each of whom depicted the others in their comics beginning in the late 1980s and then through the 1990s (more or less). For those unfamliar with Peepshow, as the title suggests, deals largely with Matt's sexual fantasies (highly inappropriate, largely politically incorrect – especailly by today's standards – and uncrontrollable [by him, at least]) and the unfortunate impacts these had on his life and those close to him, as well. It's pretty unflinching, and more importantly, it's good cartooning; but it's definitely problematic work, and certainly not for everyone. Joe Matt left our earthly realm in 2023, but this collection ensures that his pen and ink self will be around for a long while to come.









