The Independent Weekly, a University of Toronto campus newspaper, recently profiled me and the comic. A Matt B moment He looks into windows and waits for streetcars. He can't sleep at night, he goes out for beer, he comes home to a flooded apartment. He's Matt B. The comic strip character. But he's not a far cry from his creator, Matthew Blackett. The 27-year-old puts out a new collection of m@b strips every couple of months that he prefers people "think were fiction." The comic, however, details Blackett's real-life encounters with his friends, his landlord, and the odd person in the street. "My friends don't care," Blackett says. "My landlord knows I do a comic, and once asked me if he could 'see what I was drawing,' but I laughed it off."
"I walk around a lot," Blackett says. "I try to find amusing situations, and make it [m@b] as real as I can." "If you want to know what perfect comic timing looks like in print, look no further," a Broken Pencil reviewer recently wrote. And it's true. Blackett can set up and play out a gently absurd situation in just three panels. Blackett's friends distribute m@b around both U of T's Faculty of Law and York's Osgoode Hall; law students, apparently, are among the fans. "Every once in a while, I think it's weird," Blackett says, "that m@b is relating to everyone." Reading Naomi Klein's No Logo has recently encouraged Blackett to take a political turn with his strip. Ten issues later, he's "become more community oriented" In issue #10, Tooker Gomberg's election sign goes up on Matt B's front lawn. And since the beginning (in December of 1998, m@b #1 had a print run of 100), Blackett's tried to communicate empathy for the homeless. What at first comes off as flippant eavesdropping reproduced for an easy laugh, the strips often convey the lasting effect an encounter with a stranger can have. "There's a fantastic amount of wisdom in these people. I really feel for them," Blackett says, wide-eyed. "Sometimes I feel like I exploit them, but I'm trying to show that there's too much mental illness, too many homeless people out there. They seem to leave lasting impressions on me, more so than people I meet in a bar or wherever." He's also heading to Quebec City in April for the Summit of America. "But I'm not a person who can link arms and stand and block people from getting in, because I don't like the idea that we should be physically stopping people," Blackett says. He much prefers to document. "I don't have to be on the front lines to be politically active. I'm going to photograph it and use my skills in the way I know I can." These documenting abilities first came to light while studying journalism at Humber College, where Blackett also figured out he was better at graphic design than at writing. After a brief stint teaching desktop publishing at Humber, he snagged a full-time position at The Hockey News, an international weekly magazine with a 100,000 subscription base. His second job, though, is pure pleasure. "First" Blackett says, pulling out a black sketchbook, "I write my strips out", then using Quark Xpress, he then lays out the panels, prints them, and cuts and pastes them into the order he prefers, at which point he begins to draw. Each collection (about 60 strips long) is the product of at least 70 hours of concentration. "I started this off as just a small thing for my friends, and now it's up to 1,500 an issue." Which, he backtracks, is "still small" Not that he minds - there's that indie credibility he's got to keep a handle on. Blackett even hesitated before selling some m@b t-shirts over his website, and explains that the t-shirts only came about because of the demand. But he's also learning how to market himself - shamelessly. "It's kind of sad," he complains, "because I don't like talking to someone I haven't seen in three years and pulling out a flyer, saying, 'Guess what? I'm throwing a party'...but I still do it." Later, Blackett hands me a sticker and invites me to his newest issue's launch. A co-presentation with sceneandheard.ca, a new e-zine, this party will be "more relaxed than the others" A couple of launches prior a performance artist named Sthief lined up six pumpkins, cut them open with a chainsaw, and lit them on fire. Very unlike m@b. The comic strip character is modestly drawn: he's got a V for a nose, dots for eyes, and wears the same t-shirt in every collection. A variation in expression might be a thoughtful tilting of the head. But m@b's understated humour might be the key to its success. "I get a lot of e-mails from people saying, 'I had a m@b moment,'" Blackett says with a shyish smile. "I guess it's their way of relating."
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Though his mail (these days more frequently
addressed to m@b than not) might eventually give him away, the revelation
wouldn't be offensive, exactly. Embarrassing, maybe. The simple, low-key
strips capture everyday nicks and chips in urban living, like housemates
who have loud sex, neurotic friends, and crazed cabbies. Most of the action
transpires in public spaces: grocery stores, line-ups, laundromats.