I Like Comics

Hate 1-15 was recently collected into a large softcover book, Buddy Does Seattle. I would recommend that to start your journey into Baggiana.

Hate #1-10.

Fantagraphics, 1990-1992.

Hate was one of the most popular Fantagraphics series ever. It focused on the life of Buddy Bradley, a character from the earlier series Neat Stuff, after Buddy moved to Seattle. Issues 1-15 (so far I’ve only read 1-10) were a black-and-white, balls-out underground-style series. Hate is definitely one of my favorite comics ever. I’m always saying that there should be dozens of comics like Hate on every newsstand and in every bookstore because this comic is what can truly be called mainstream. The stories are engaging and funny. The storytelling is effective. Buddy’s friend manages a punk band, Buddy’s girlfriends are crazy, Buddy drinks beer and gets angry. Funny stuff happens. There’re no highfaluting artsy pretentions or bullshit, just good story, characters, and humor. This is comics they way they were meant to be — you go the store, you buy a comic, you come home, you read it, you’re entertained for 20 or 30 minutes, you put it away until you need a good laugh again. Hate goes down like pizza and cheap beer. Very refreshing especially with all the modern artsy stuff you see the hipsters carrying around like Tepid, Lumakick, or Quimby’s Comics and Stories. The only thing I don’t like is there’s waaaaaay too much hatching on the faces (Bagge said to me he’s not sure why he did that, maybe he was just bored!), but it works. Look for this one!

Issues #1-15 are now collected in a new, cheap softcover “phonebook.” Yay for Fanta.

Hate Jamboree.

Fantagraphics, 1998.

This magazine is a veritable cornucopia of Baggiana! The central text piece is a thoroughly entertaining essay by Peter Bagge on his artistic development (?) and explains a lot of stuff about his comic book career. There’s also an interview with Jim Blanchard that’s not very interesting, short pieces by Kim Thompson and Gary Groth, and a non-sequitor Rick Altergott interview. Also very valuable is the contributor bios (an all-star lineup contributed short pieces to Hate #16-30, the color issues) and Bagge bibliography. But the main draw of the book is definitely the art samples. The gallery itself takes up about half of the book, and all of the text pieces are very densely illustrated — the art usually takes up about half of those pages. You get a lot of really cool art that you wouldn’t have seen elsewhere. Lots of it is in color too. Some of the highlights: Punk rock album covers, short strips from High Times and ESPN submissions, a Japanese bootleg Hate poster, a full-color one-pager from an old porno magazine, a Dan Clowes collaboration that was rejected from Cracked, a song-comic from a CD booklet inked by Jim Woodring, and a color strip about the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival! This whole zine is very well-designed and promises a solid afternoon of entertainment for anyone who enjoys reading Bagge.

Magazine, $4.50 cover price. In print from Fantagraphics. Get it from Copacetic for 20% off. Part color, cheap paper, self-covering, taller than average size, 62 pages.