Matthews is best known for his cartoon characters Vic and Nat’ly, two irreverent bar owners from the Nint’ Ward who rank alongside Ignatius J. Reilly and Blanche DuBois in the pantheon of fictional New Orleanians. As a critic, Matthews earnestly pursued authenticity. In his later years, he spilled thousands of words articulating what he saw as the depreciation and corruption of New Orleans’s cultural capital. He died in 2021, but his legacy lives on in the young writers he helped mentor, the cartoonists he inspired, and in the yellowing clippings of Vic and Nat’ly still found taped to refrigerators throughout New Orleans.

Matthews once wrote, “Be witty. Be nasty. Be silly. Don’t be boring.” That ethos animates the pages of Bunny Matthews: His Life, Art, and Obsessions, the first monograph of his work.

Alison Fensterstock is a former music critic for the Times-Picayune and Gambit in New Orleans and a columnist for the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ quarterly 64 Parishes. Outside of New Orleans, her writing has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, MOJO, the Oxford American, and other places. Her books include The Definition of Bounce and How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music. She’s been a substitute DJ on WWOZ 90.7 FM since 2006. 

Michael Tisserand is a former Gambit editor whose books include Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White; The Kingdom of Zydeco; Sugarcane Academy; and My Father When Young. His work has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Eisner Award, and the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Forthcoming books include a history of Charlie Chaplin’s movie The Great Dictator for Oxford University Press. More of his writing can be found at michaeltisserand.com.Opens in new tab