Buddy Does Jersey

Of all the great stuff we carry at Star Clipper, Peter Bagge's work is hands down my favorite. For those of you who are not familar with Bagge, he is the creator responsible for such comics as Neat Stuff, Sweetshop, Apocalypse Nerd and the legendary Hate series that tells the tale of muse Buddy Bradley. Hate lasted thrity issues starting in 1990 and finishing up in '98, and has been collected into multiple trades. A few years back Bagge's re-collected the first 15 issues into the book "Buddy Does Seattle", which recounted the classic "grunge" issues and the popularity peak of his series.Fantagraphic just released the second major collection "Buddy Does Jersey" collecting issues 16-30, and in my opinion is the better half of Bagge's work.

Unlike the "Seattle" collection, "Buddy Does Jersey" reaches a broader audience than the twenty-nothing slacker issues that are 1-15. When Buddy, accompanied my his manic girlfreind Lisa, returns to live with his parents in New Jersey some of the most relealistic drama in the series is explored by Bagge. Buddy's new life in Jersey is bombarded with the death of a parent, a major break-up in the midst of starting his own independent used "junk" store, and a rather complicated suicide. Yet, the series remains a comedy, finding the humor in real life with no pretense.

"Buddy Does Jersey" returns to the black and white format of the first fifteen issuse, in order to fully apperciate the ink work of Jim Blanchard. It also has a revealing introduction by Bagge, describing how this later works reflects his own life, and a forward by fart-joke aficionado Johnny Ryan.

For those Bagge readers who never read later Hate nows your chance. I highly recommend it, ecspecially if you want to understand the mind of any twenty year old guy who loves records and comics!

-Jon