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A review by rebus
The Complete Hate by Peter Bagge
3.75
The art is far weaker due to bringing on a collaborator, and the narrative is far more linear than the slice of Seattle life we saw in the first 15 black and white issues. I'm not sure we ever needed to see Buddy's eyes or that Fantagraphics should have taken their first wild success--after over 10 years publishing undergrounds--and turned it to color.
The portrait of the collectible's world is unrealistic, even if I worked in it for 2 decades and share Buddy's view that they are all scum. A shrink telling Lisa not to generalize is also a bit unrealistic, even if he did know what he wanted by age 16, because her view of the world is actually correct and his is that of the minority in the upper middle class of wealth and privilege (as are all of his clients). He's the one in a narrow bubble in his fraudulent profession.
It may not be as brilliant as the early work, but Bagge is right to call cops the babysitters of the lower class and for Buddy to call Brooklyin the worst place on earth (even before the Onion and AV Club moved there and destroyed the world with their bland 'taste making' opinions about what was great at the very point in time when all culture went downhill completely and music especially began to suck).
The autobiographical aspect comes in to fine focus at the very end, even if those real events were taking place in 1991 and not 1998, as Buddy gets Lisa pregnant and his very conservative leanings go deeper. It's still the best comix from the 90s.
The portrait of the collectible's world is unrealistic, even if I worked in it for 2 decades and share Buddy's view that they are all scum. A shrink telling Lisa not to generalize is also a bit unrealistic, even if he did know what he wanted by age 16, because her view of the world is actually correct and his is that of the minority in the upper middle class of wealth and privilege (as are all of his clients). He's the one in a narrow bubble in his fraudulent profession.
It may not be as brilliant as the early work, but Bagge is right to call cops the babysitters of the lower class and for Buddy to call Brooklyin the worst place on earth (even before the Onion and AV Club moved there and destroyed the world with their bland 'taste making' opinions about what was great at the very point in time when all culture went downhill completely and music especially began to suck).
The autobiographical aspect comes in to fine focus at the very end, even if those real events were taking place in 1991 and not 1998, as Buddy gets Lisa pregnant and his very conservative leanings go deeper. It's still the best comix from the 90s.