We here at the Comics Drill are BIG fans of books about masturbation; that’s the bias we have to try to overcome when reading comics. But when you read Spent by Joe Matt, even if you take out the awkward and sleazy “jerk-off-into-a-tshirt” moments, you can’t ignore this book’s strong sense of narrative and gut-wrenching honesty.
Broken up into three parts and spanning 124 pages, Spent chronicles the daily life of the self-hating, porn addicted, girl crazy, chauvinistic, and frugal Joe Matt. He depicts agonizing sado-masochistic exchanges, his lack of a love life and how it all ties back to his stunted sexual growth as a youth.
While that sounds like it may be grimy and almost unpleasant material to read, it is beautified by Joe Matt’s simple yet cinematic sense of narrative. Despite it’s rigid eight-panel layout on every page, we are determinedly guided into frank and revealing flashbacks of his youth as well as painful encounters between Matt and the few people still in his life, in between porn dubbing sessions (read the book to learn the disturbing level that he goes to with this activity). His art style completes the package with its “Saturday morning cartoon” feel, dragging us in and keeping us there.
Ultimately, Spent will frustrate, depress and (maybe) arouse you and you would be a fool to pass it up. And you can thank Alex K. after you read that shit! Absum!
