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\nBy Peter Bagge<\/b> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 0-930193-53-9<\/p>\n
\nBy Peter Bagge<\/b> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 0-930193-53-9<\/p>\n
Having had such a great time reading Other Stuff<\/a><\/b> the other day I’ve decided to finally spotlight an old and cruelly out of print tome from 1987 that I’ve been meaning to rave about for simply ages: one packed with the superb but far too seldom seen formative appearances of such landmarks of pop culture as Buddy Bradley<\/i>, Junior<\/i> and Studs Kirby<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Peter Bagge is prominent these days as a fiery, laser-mouthed, superbly acerbic and well-established, award-winning cartoonist, animator and musician, responsible for incredibly addictive, sharply satirical strips examining contemporary American life, but once upon a time he was just another strident, gifted jobbing cartoonist trying to make a living.<\/p>\n Born in Peekskill, Westchester County, New York on 11th<\/sup> December 1957, he was one of four kids in a ferociously Catholic military family. Like esteemed colleague Robert Crumb a generation earlier, Bagge escaped that emotionally toxic, fight-filled environment as soon as possible, moving to New York City in the mid-1970s to study at the celebrated School of Visual Arts.<\/p>\n He soon dropped out, however, and began working in the vibrant alternative publishing field, producing strips and panels for Punk Magazine<\/b>, Screw<\/b>, High Times<\/b>, East Village Eye<\/b> (where the first Junior<\/i> strip debuted), World War Three<\/b> and others.<\/p>\n Meeting like-minded artists he began self and co-publishing comics and when Crumb saw copies of Comical Funnies<\/b> – produced with new friend John Holstrom – Bagge was offered space in and eventually the Editorship of the seminal magazine Weirdo <\/b>in 1983.<\/p>\n He augmented his 3-year tenure there with various paying gigs at Screw<\/b>, Swank<\/b>, Video X<\/b>, Video Games Magazine<\/b>, The Rocket<\/b>, Bad News<\/b> and elsewhere.<\/p>\n In 1984 Bagge relocated to Seattle, Washington State and began his association with alternative\/Independent publisher Fantagraphics. The following year his spectacularly idiosyncratic cartoon magazine Neat Stuff<\/b> launched as a thrice-yearly vehicle of outrageous personal expression and societal observation. His stark, manic, topically surreal strips starring old creations like Studs Kirby<\/i>, Junior<\/i>, Buddy Bradleys<\/i> and Girly Girl<\/i> soon made him a darling of the emerging West Coast Grunge scene.<\/p>\n Neat Stuff<\/b> – and its eventual successor Hate <\/b>– quickly <\/b>made Bagge a household name\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 at least in more progressive households\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Neat Stuff<\/b> ran from 1985-1989 and was a perfect pioneering vehicle for the burgeoning graphic novel market. This early compilation came half-way through the run, dazzled for a little while and then disappeared. Even though much of the anthologised material has since been reprinted in solo editions dedicated to specific members of the eclectic cast, I for one would dearly love to see the series revived, revised and released in some sort of definitive edition\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n This glorious monochrome, album-sized compendium of seldom-seen strips is stuffed with deliciously fluid drawings and razor-edged, broadly baroque comedically absurdist observations with incisive, deeply intimate questioning quandaries and observations on living. Don’t panic though: it’s much more fun than it sounds, and the constant confrontations with a changing world everybody was – and still is – increasingly out of step with make for terrifically mature reading fun\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Following Robert Crumb’s informative Introduction ‘Peter Bagge – The R. Crumb of the Eighties’<\/i>, the crazed cartography begins with a selection of Studs Kirby <\/b>strips starting with ‘A Few Words from Studs Kirby’<\/i>, after which philosophical diatribe the quintessential Reagan-Era Oaf establishes his credentials in ‘Studs Kirby Gets Drunk by Himself’<\/i> before being sucked whole into a changing consumer society when ‘Studs Kirby Gets Cable TV’<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Girly Girl<\/b> may be the little lass next door, but that’s simply one more reason to move house. The hyper-active, impulse-control challenged tyke debuted in appalling style with pals Chuckie Boy<\/i> and the Goon on the Moon<\/i> in ‘Uh Oh, Here Comes Girly Girl’<\/i>, before springing back undaunted to take on the rise in civilian journalism (or is it just spying on people) in ‘Candid-Camera-Star-Search-Solid-Gold-This-Is-Your-Life-Lip-Sync-Contest-In-Reverse’<\/i> and then proved once and for all just why she will never be ‘Little Miss Popularity’<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Bagge’s greatest hit was always the horrifically dysfunctional traditional values family The Bradleys<\/b> and these painfully hilarious early forays prove why as ‘Ye Gads, It’s The Bradleys!’<\/i> introduces drunken ogre Dad, shrewish Mom and their ghastly progeny Buddy<\/i>, Babs<\/i> and Butch<\/i> who quickly show their true worth as ‘Mother’s Little Helpers’<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n Buddy and his shiftless pal Tom<\/i> take centre stage in ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Refuge’ <\/i>when the worthless firstborn goes looking for old LPs at a second-hand record shop, before little Butch passes on the cruel life-coping skills he leaned from his big brother in ‘The Trickle Down Theory’<\/i><\/p>\n There then follows a joyously eccentric interlude as we happily focus on sheer exuberant graphic madness with a page of nine ‘Neat Stuff Trading Cards’<\/i>.<\/p>\n Sheltered Momma’s boy Junior<\/b> finally leaves the happy maternal nest – although hardly from choice – to find shelter in a far-from-innocuous boarding house in ‘The Cabbage’<\/i>, where he swiftly packs in a lot of insalubrious second-hand living whilst under the scurvy wing of landlord Mr. Frank<\/i>.<\/p>\n However ‘The Road to Manhood’<\/i> is perilous and soon Junior is going backwards not forward\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n