Joe Matt

Joe Matt is the autobiographical alter ego of the cartoonist of the same name, appearing in raw, confessional slice-of-life stories that chronicle his relationships, obsessions, and personal failings with unflinching self-deprecating honesty.

Few characters are as deeply embedded in the world of alternative comics as Joe Matt, who made his debut in the very first issue of Drawn & Quarterly in 1990 — a landmark moment in the Copper/Modern Age that helped define an entire movement in literary cartooning. Published across a remarkable 25-year span, this character has kept remarkable company, sharing pages with the likes of Julie Doucet, Chester Brown, Seth, and Mary Fleener — a veritable who's who of indie comics royalty. Whether encountered in Drawn & Quarterly itself or in the celebratory anthology Twenty-Five Years of Contemporary Cartooning, Comics, and Graphic Novels, Joe Matt feels inseparable from the story of what alternative comics became. For anyone tracing the roots of the artform's most personal, confessional tradition, this is a name absolutely worth knowing.