Peter Bagge's Hate – Buddy Does Seattle

The 1990s Comic Book Adventures of Buddy Bradley on the West Coast

Jun 15, 2009

Hate chronicled Buddy Bradley's Seattle days in its first fifteen issues. Peter Bagge's skills at caricature and telling tales of dysfunction reached a new peak.

After his anthology series Neat Stuff ended in 1989, cartoonist Peter Bagge decided to spin-off his semi-autobiographical character Buddy Bradley in a new Fantagraphics series. Calling it Hate, Bagge began to chronicle Buddy's adventures in Seattle, where Bagge himself had relocated in the mid-1980s.

In Hate's first issue, Buddy Bradley welcomes readers to his new "bachelor pad," and fills in the narrative gaps from his last appearance in Neat Stuff #15. Buddy and his friend Leonard "Stinky" Brown had left New Jersey, and after some misadventures, settled on the west coast. In other early issues, Hate provides updates about Buddy's sister Babs (now a teenage mother of two) and his brother Butch (in puberty and with problems of his own).

Hate also introduces new characters into Buddy's life. Buddy and Stinky's roommate is George Cecil Hamilton III, an obsessive recluse who spends his time compiling pseudo-scientific notes. Hate #2 introduces Valerie Russo, an aspiring yuppie who becomes Buddy's unlikely girlfriend, and her unstable roommate, Lisa Leavenworth.

Buddy Bradley and the Seattle Music Scene

Buddy's move to Seattle anticipated the city's sudden fame as the capital of grunge in the early 1990s. Accordingly, Buddy – an obsessive music fan since Neat Stuff – becomes the shady manager of "Leonard and the Love Gods," a band headlined by his old friend Stinky. The venture, chronicled in Hate #8–9's '"Follow That Dream," is a hilarious failure.

Around the same time, Buddy's dysfunctional relationship with Valerie falls apart. However, in true Peter Bagge style, Buddy soon takes up with her roommate Lisa – after Lisa has a disastrous date with the socially challenged George in "Paranoia Rules Supreme," from Hate #7.

Buddy Bradley Begins to Hate Seattle

But Buddy's domestic bliss with Lisa proves not to be in Hate #11's "Slumming With Buddy and Lisa." The couple fight, drive out their roommates, and physically deteriorate. Meanwhile, Buddy takes some first steps in the collectibles business, and has an awkward reunion with Valerie in "The Old Flame," from Hate #14.

By Hate #15, Buddy's living situation has become intolerable, as George, Stinky, and Valerie all move back in to his apartment. Looking to escape from shady memorabilia peddlers as well, Buddy resolves to go back to New Jersey, reluctantly bringing Lisa with him.

Fun With Buddy + Lisa, published in 1995, collects these stories from Hate #11–15, and brings the first half of Hate's run to a close. All fifteen issues were later collected as Buddy Does Seattle.

Peter Bagge's Neat Stuff had been in magazine format (the same as MAD, for instance), but Hate marked a change to the slimmer dimensions of a comic book. Bagge's style had matured to the point where his black and white cartoons had a cleaner, clearer look than his mid-1980s work. However, the exaggerated expressionism that is Bagge's trademark remained.

Nor did Bagge's art remain static, as the second half of Hate would see more important changes. In retrospect, therefore, the first fifteen Hate issues form a convenient unit. Peter Bagge created memorable new characters and captured the early-1990s zeitgeist of urban hipsters, grunge rockers, and oddball slackers.

The copyright of the article Peter Bagge's Hate – Buddy Does Seattle in Graphic Novelists is owned by Luke Arnott. Permission to republish Peter Bagge's Hate – Buddy Does Seattle in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.