 Self @-@ revelatory autobiography was a prominent genre in alternative comics in the early 1990s , drawing influence from the works of Robert Crumb , Harvey Pekar , Art Spiegelman , and others of the earlier underground comix generation . Seth had focused on autobiographical stories since Palookaville débuted . Friends of his appeared in it , most prominently fellow Toronto @-@ based cartoonists Chester Brown and Joe Matt , who also featured each other in their own autobiographical comics . Though a work of fiction , Seth presented It 's a Good Life , If You Don 't Weaken as another autobiographical story , an approach inspired in part by Lynda Barry , who mixed autobiography with fiction in her comics . Seth showed far more restraint in the content of his work than did Matt and Brown , whose comics revealed personal details such as their authors ' masturbation habits . The three share a melancholy worldview and a self @-@ deprecatory approach . 
