Will Bunn “Bunny” Matthews, a cartoonist, writer, and former editor of OffBeat who was best known for his creation of the working-class comic-strip characters Vic and Nat’ly, died on Tuesday, June 1, at Wynhoven Health Care Center in Marrero of complications from cancer. He was 70.

In an essay for Folklife Louisiana, Aaron Duplantier wrote, “Bunny Matthews made a name for himself in the early ’80s with the creation of his two iconic characters, husband and wife Vic and Nat’ly Broussard, a satire duo who own and operate a bar and poor-boy emporium in the Ninth Ward. Their commentary on the local scene, on the city’s cultural and social issues, served as the basis for much humor and controversy in the nineteen years they appeared in The Times-Picayune … the content of his cartooning reveals the depth of influence of New Orleanian (and its surrounding areas) lore and cultural cues; nary a Matthews cartoon panel exists without reference to Hubig’s pies, George Rodrigue’s Blue Dog, Boudin and Cracklins, or Morgus the Magnificent.”

According to a Wikipedia biography, Vic and Nat’ly first appeared in 1982 in Dixie, a former weekly supplement of The Times-Picayune. Matthews’ first cartoon strip was titled F’Sure: Actual Dialogue Heard on the Streets of New Orleans, published from the late-1970s to the early-1980s in the defunct New Orleans weekly paper Figaro for which Matthews also wrote music reviews. A collection of some F’Sure strips was published in book form in 1978.

In 1999, Matthews became editor of OffBeat, a job he held until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “Bunny was one of the most talented New Orleanians, ever,” said Jan Ramsey, publisher of OffBeat. “His intellect was formidable, his wit was sharp and evil, and he has an eye for satire second to none.  He was an inspired artist and writer, and an astute observer of the vagaries and quirks of New Orleans culture.”

One sample of Matthews’ colorful writing style can be found in this essay about Mardi Gras from the February 2004 edition of OffBeat: “The history, briefly, goes like this: our ancient pagan tree-worshipping brethren, as winter chilled their fur-draped bones, decided that getting smashed on hallucinogenic berries and dancing madly about the campfire was a much better idea than chasing after woolly mammoths with flint-tipped spears. And chasing after ancient pagan madamoiselles was a somewhat safer enterprise, particularly after inhibitions had been erased by large doses of hallucinogenic berries.”

A more in-depth obituary for Matthews will appear in the July 2021 digital edition of OffBeat.