Book Review: Readings

My Life in a Jugular Vein

by Joe Matt
Drawn & Quarterly, 124 pp., $19.95

My Life In a Jugular Vein: Three More Years of Snakepit Comics

by Ben Snakepit
Microcosm Publishing, 288 pp., $10

After an extended break due to ... laziness, Joe Matt is back with a collection of autobiographical strips compiled from issues 11-14 of his four-time-Harvey-Award-nominated comic book, Peep Show. Following in the pen strokes of Robert Crumb (to whom this collection is dedicated, "For showing me the way") and curmudgeon Harvey Pekar, Matt chronicles the inner-workings of his mind with jaw-dropping results. In his own words, he's "lazy ... self-indulgent ... self-centered ... self-obsessed ... shallow ... petty ... [and] overly critical." He's also hopelessly addicted to pornography and masturbates on average eight to 10 times a day (once bashing the bishop 20 times in a 61/2-hour marathon session). Instead of devoting his time to working on his comic or pursuing a "normal" relationship, Matt dedicates his energies to meticulously editing pornographic tapes down to just the bits he considers "pure gold" (gone are the shots of the hairy-assed male "stars"). Needless to say, his pornography addiction has caused considerable problems in his past relationships (documented in The Poor Bastard collection of Peep Shows 1-6) and continues to plague him to this day. He lives in a boarding house, shares a bathroom with four other tenants he despises, pees in a jar, has minimal contact with the outside world (aside from fellow comic artists Seth and Chester Brown), is racked with anxiety over his eventual death, and lives as cheaply as humanly possible and without the trappings of 21st century man (no cell phone, no computer, no car). Still, due to his talent, he has flirted with mainstream success. While HBO was at one time developing an animated series based on The Poor Bastard (which has since been dropped) and his fans include Weezer's Rivers Cuomo and The Office's painfully cute Jenna Fischer, Matt still resides in the underground world of "indie" comics awaiting his big break à la Daniel Clowes with Ghost World. Matt is supposedly working on a comic based on his current life in Los Angeles, which will hopefully be released some time this decade.

Also paving his path in the autobiographical comic genre is local punk rocker/comic artist/ramblin' man Ben Snakepit who documents every day of his life -- warts and all -- in his comic book, Snakepit. While many of his three-panel-per-day strips are of the typical went to work, got drunk and/or stoned, and passed out variety, the majority chronicles life on the road with his bands (including J Church), his many video- and record-store jobs, the anxieties and thrills associated with the life of a modern-day punk rock vagabond, and his escapades with the ladies (falling in and out of love with a Suicide Girl, getting engaged and then breaking up with a girl from Canada he met online, etc.). My Life in a Jugular Vein spans Ben's life from 2004 to 2007 and features his crude yet capable scribble-style, hastily rendered artwork. Comparisons to the artistry of Dave Cooper, Adrian Tomine, and Chris Ware are a long way off, but like the raw, DIY music he loves and champions in his comics, the art conveys his message effectively. And much like Matt, Snakepit is not afraid to reveal many of the less-appealing aspects of his life: his bout with scabies, dating two girls in the same day, or putting on the excess poundage that goes with the drinkin', druggin', and tacos-after-midnight lifestyle he leads. This pulls the reader in, somehow, making Snakepit a sympathetic character despite his perceived flaws. He spends a good chunk of his time here in Austin (bored while in town, nostalgic while gone) and pays frequent visit and homage to the few remaining indie oases the kids of Sound Exchange have left to hold on to, including Tamale House, Sound on Sound, Emo's, etc. For those unfamiliar or uninterested in the drunken shenanigans of heavily tattooed punk rockers, this collection could grow tiresome quickly. For those who are left, it's a testament to a guy living the life he sings about in his songs -- and writes about in his comics.