Credo: The Rose Wilder Lane Story

Peter Bagge is one of my all-time favorite comics makers. A multiple award winner with decades of credits, he created the seminal alternative comics series Neat Stuff and Hate and served as editor of the holdover underground comics anthology Weirdo. He has also created a number of graphic novels, including Fire!!, Woman Rebel, Apocalypse Nerd, Other Lives, and Reset. More recently, he has been a contributor to publications like Reason magazine (see his collections Founding Fathers Funnies and Everybody is Stupid Except for Me) and Vice Magazine (the Musical Urban Legends column).

Like Fire!! and Woman Rebel, Credo is a biography of a woman associated with a libertarian point of view. Rose Wilder Lane was the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, of Little House on the Prairie fame, and a respected author in her own right. In fact, this book suggests that she had at least a small hand in her mother's literary success, at least as an editor and polisher, and perhaps even more so as the author of several books (the exact nature of her role is suggested but unclear in this book). She was also a very vocal woman, partly fired up by her bipolar mental state, who associated with a good number of the political and literary figures of the day, including Ayn Rand.

Like the other books in this series, Bagge portrays various highlights from her life, and it is clear for the substantive footnotes that follow the main text that he has done extensive research into his subject. He also inserts his own political leanings as well as a good dose of humor. I did not know much about Rose Wilder Lane before I read this book, and I felt that it was an effective and informative introduction to her life and works.  He speaks about his work on this book in this interview with Etelka Lehoczky.

The reviews I have read about this book have tended to be positive. Publishers Weekly called it a "loopy, frantic, and personality-packed tribute." Ryan C. pondered if Bagge is "creatively stalled out" and wrote, "my hope is that he’ll give the biography format a rest for awhile and tell us where he’s coming from and why rather than using historical figures as mouthpieces and/or human shields for his worldview." Rob Clough praised the book for intermingling comedy and historical research.

Credo was published by Drawn & Quarterly, and they offer a preview and much more info here. There is also a sizable preview available from Reason.

On a final note, I was glad to serve on a couple of panels with Bagge at the Denver Pop Culture Con this year, where he signed my copy of this book. He's an informed and funny speaker and a good guy, too!

Fire!! The Zora Neale Hurston Story

I was an English major in college, and my first exposures to Zora Neale Hurston were her novels Their Eyes Were Watching God and Jonah's Gourd Vine. All I really knew about her was that she led an interesting life, did some anthropological research, and died in an unmarked grave (as famously found by Alice Walker). So I was glad to read this book, which chronicles her life from her childhood to her death and rediscovery by Walker. What I most admired about it was how much it embodies the energy and verve Hurston displayed in her life. Always a vocal and outgoing person, she came from a tumultuous family life and humble beginnings in Alabama, moved to Florida, and then eventually made it to college in Baltimore, Atlanta, and New York City.

Eventually, she came to work with Franz Boas while at Barnard College, doing ethnographic work that took her back home to Florida but eventually also to more exotic places like Haiti and Jamaica. She also became involved with a burgeoning Harlem Renaissance and was a prominent African-American writer and thinker of the time. One of the aspects I admired most about this book was how it depicted her various relationships, with peers, colleagues, and benefactors, showing much of the politics involved with doing academic and intellectual work. It also lends a very human face to some prominent figures, as well as a shot of humor into several situations.

Overall, it was that sense of humor and warmth that Hurston used to her advantage to do her work, date and marry who she wanted, and live an exceptional life. The art in this book is very cartoonish, but in the end I think it was probably the most apt for realistically and faithfully capturing the vitality Hurston displayed throughout her life.

This book's creator Peter Bagge is one of my all-time favorite comics makers. A multiple award winner with decades of credits, he created the seminal alternative comics series Neat Stuff and Hate and served as editor of the holdover underground comics anthology Weirdo. He has also created a number of graphic novels, including Woman Rebel, Apocalypse Nerd, Other Lives, and Reset. More recently, he has been a contributor to publications like Reason magazine (see his collections Founding Fathers Funnies and Everybody is Stupid Except for Me) and Vice Magazine (the Musical Urban Legends column). He speaks about his work on Fire!! in this interview.

All of the reviews I have read of this book have been positive. Chris Oliveros commented that Bagge "has proven himself to be a thoughtful, careful researcher with a gift for portraying the deeply fascinating and hilarious moments in people’s lives." Etelka Lehoczky called it "an exhilarating addition to Hurston lore." Paul Constant regretted a lack of detail about Hurston's literary work but still concluded that "artists like Bagge continue to do the necessary work of asking the questions" about race and representation.

Fire!! was published by Drawn & Quarterly, and they offered a preview and more here.

Other Lives

Other Lives is an exploration of identity as filtered through the technology we use, in this case online avatars. It focuses on the relationships between four people. Vader Ryderbeck is a neurotic journalist who uses an obvious pseudonym and whose insecurities threaten his relationship with his girlfriend Ivy. She is the family rebel, an Asian girl who moved out of her conservative parents' home and lives with a white boy. In writing a story, Vader encounters two friends from the past. One, Otis, claims to be an ex-federal agent, although this seems unlikely as he lives with his mother and gets caught in some untruths. The second is Woodrow, a gamer with a gambling problem whose marriage does not seem as solid as he claims.

Of course, the real-life foibles, insecurities, and personality issues each character has spills over into the virtual world, here a Second Life parody named Second World. And the result of all this interplay is conflict and some strained relationships when Ivy and Woodrow become embroiled in an online dalliance. I felt that the story was an interesting one that hits on ideas of truth, identity, and our many "real-life" relationships as they function both face-to-face and in electronic spaces. Certainly, the characters may be stock stereotypes but in the end they help tell a thoughtful and entertaining tale.

This book's creator Peter Bagge is one of my all time favorite comics makers. A multiple award winner with decades of comics to his credit, he created the seminal alternative comics series Neat Stuff and Hate and served as editor of the underground comics holdover anthology Weirdo. He has also created a number of graphic novels, including Woman Rebel, Apocalypse Nerd,  and Reset. More recently, he has been a frequent contributor to publications like Reason magazine (see his collection Everybody is Stupid Except for Me) and Vice Magazine (the Musical Urban Legends column).

The reviews I have read about this book have been a mixed bag full of lots of critiques. Alice Parker remarked that it "is clearly the work of a professional, but one that seems to have lacked editorial oversight." Shawn O'Rourke concluded, "Other Lives is an interesting story that confirms why Peter Bagge has become a acclaimed name in the art comic world." R.S. Martin wrote, "Bagge’s explicit theme is that the Internet has led to people assuming multiple identities within their lives, but he doesn’t develop it into any greater insight or irony. As such, it always takes a back seat to the character comedy."

Other Lives was published by Vertigo, and they have info about it here.

Founding Fathers Funnies

Peter Bagge is one of my all time favorite comics artists. He is an award winning artist with decades of comics to his credit, including the seminal alternative comics series Neat Stuff and Hate and his editorship of the underground comics holdover anthology Weirdo. He has also created a number of graphic novels, including Woman Rebel, Apocalypse Nerd,  Other Lives, and Reset. More recently, he has been a frequent contributor to publications like Reason magazine (see his collection Everybody is Stupid Except for Me) and Vice Magazine (the Musical Urban Legends column).

Founding Fathers Funnies is a collection of previously published shorter pieces that together weave a rich and profane tapestry about the lives of famous colonial Americans. What I like best about these episodes, aside from the fact that they are hilarious, is that they are both factual and full of personality. Too often we get homogenized or puffed-up portraits of these figures, but Bagge takes all the air out of their sails while adding his voice to historical events and participants' mannerisms.

The result is a bunch of memorable and thoughtful pieces that made me ponder the circumstances of the American Revolutionary War. Certainly, these folks all had their various accomplishments, but I found it refreshing to read about an insular, contemptuous "Virginia mafia" (Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe), a caustic and carousing Ben Franklin, and an economical, pragmatic Paul Revere. Consequently, many of these guys (John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Paine) come off as really smart but also just plain unlikable. The lack of reverence really allows the reader to think about the actual people and events that took place, and I thought it cast a new light on some  well-tread material.

Finding reviews for this book proved to be quite a task, but the ones I did find were positive. Pat at Project-Nerd wrote, "The book’s cartooning and storytelling is excellent, but what I love most is that Bagge also writes an afterword featuring all of his footnotes throughout the collection." Chad called it "a brisk" and "rib tickling" collection.


Founding Fathers Funnies was published by Dark Horse, and they have a preview and much more available here. This book features profanity and some sexual situations, so it is suggested for readers mature enough to handle both.

Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story

A profound biography full of profane moments, Woman Rebel is a dense, informative, dramatic, and entertaining biography of Margaret Sanger, a woman who had more than enough adventures to fill ten lifetimes. She trained in the field of medicine, married multiple times, traveled in social circles with figures like George Bernard Shaw, Mahatma Gandhi, John D. Rockefeller, and Emma Goldman, and was a free love advocate and lover of HG Wells, among others. She was a tireless advocate for women, immigrants, and those in a need; a tenacious fundraiser; an often persecuted defender of women's rights; a defendant in a number of landmark legal cases, and a popular and controversial public speaker. She was instrumental for raising awareness and funding for the creation of birth control methods as well as providing safe services in what came to be known as Planned Parenthood. And these accomplishments are just among her high points; I am leaving things out.

Sanger's methods and message were controversial in their day and are still controversial now, especially when interpreted in the light of statements about eugenics and her work with minority populations that has been (mis)construed as evidence she was trying to eradicate certain races. Author/illustrator Peter Bagge takes issue with these interpretations and here presents a well researched and documented (the back matter is dense and informative) take on her life. There are so many different episodes across multiple decades that this book is packed with interesting and evocative stories that made me laugh, cringe, or marvel at Sanger's accomplishments. And although it is not ostensibly realistic, I think that the cartoony and colorful art style only accentuates the energy and impact of this woman's life. What it lacks in naturalism it more than makes up for with its interpretive glory.

Admirably, Bagge does not shy away from depicting some of Sanger's less savory episodes and attributes and made great attempts to preserve as much of her original words in context as possible, even when he felt he did not agree with them. The result is an extremely well put together biography that provides much food for thought and many fascinating insights into a woman who profoundly affected world history.

That there is a great political bent to the proceedings should be of little surprise coming from Bagge's works. He is a frequent contributor to Reason magazine and his collection Everybody is Stupid Except for Me collects many of those strips. He is an award winning artist with decades of comics to his credit, including the seminal alternative comics series Neat Stuff and Hate and his editorship of the underground comics holdover anthology Weirdo. He has also created a number of graphic novels, including Apocalypse Nerd,  Other Lives, and Reset. He speaks more about his work on Woman Rebel in this interview.

All the reviews I have read of this book have been very positive. The Comics Journal's Chris Mautner opined that "it might seem extremely odd that someone like Bagge, whose work has so frequently relied upon on caricature, outlandish humor and slapstick would even attempt a work of this nature, much less succeed," but this book turned out "not just enjoyable and inspiring but a heckuva lot of fun." Rachel Cooke wrote that "Bagge is brilliantly economical" for managing to fit all the events and information into 80 pages of narrative. Dan Kois called the book "a fascinating testament to the ability of one person to make a difference in this world, as long as she’s a huge pain in everyone’s ass."

Woman Rebel was published by Drawn & Quarterly, and they provide a preview and more information here.

From this excerpt, I hope it's clear that I only recommend this book for mature readers. It's definitely not for children.

Yeah!

Yeah! is a curious creation in terms of its creative team. Writer Peter Bagge and artist Gilbert Hernandez are much better known for their influential and seminal alternative comics works for adult audiences like Hate and Love and Rockets. One of the last places you would expect their work would be in an all-ages book from a mainstream comics publisher like DC, but from 1999 until 2000 this series ran for nine issues under the Wildstorm imprint.

The story follows the exploits of Yeah!, the most popular band in the universe but utterly unknown on planet Earth. Band members Krazy (vocals & guitar), Honey (drums), and Woo-Woo (keyboards) ironically struggle to find an audience and have to compete in battles of the bands in order to make money. Their main competition is a semi-successful group called The Snobs, only one part of a colorful cast of supporting characters that includes their duplicitous manager Crusty, Honey's "hippie dippie" boyfriend Muddy, and their pet goat Buckeye.

The book is full of zany, intergalactic adventures balanced with humbling experiences. Yeah! cannot spend any of the money they make out in the universe on Earth, and they are constantly scrounging for opportunities to break it big in the music business on their home planet. In all, I found this book fun, surreal, and very charming. Hernandez's art is clean and energetic, calling to mind Dan DeCarlo's classic style on Archie and Josie and the Pussycats. Even though these comics were originally published in color, the black and white is still very attractive, allowing readers to more admire the line work. Bagge's stories are silly yet have enough gravity to make the reader care. Bagge speaks about his work on this book in this interview.

Most reviews I have read of Yeah! remark on the skill of the creators but are tempered by the tone and scope of the book. Marie Penny wrote that "old school comic fans, pop music lovers, and alien aficionados will enjoy Yeah!" Publishers Weekly summed up their review calling this book "a minor but highly enjoyable effort from two masters." Jeremy Nisen admired the book's "cuteness" but added that its unfinished plot-lines detract from the book as a whole.

ALA/YALSA 2012 "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" List - See more at: http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/yeah-5.html?vmcchk=1#sthash.cAxRhchB.dpuf

ALA/YALSA 2012 "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" List - See more at: http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/yeah-5.html?vmcchk=1#sthash.cAxRhchB.dpuf

ALA/YALSA 2012 "Great Graphic Novels for Teens" List - See more at: http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/yeah-5.html?vmcchk=1#sthash.cAxRhchB.dpuf

Yeah! is available from Fantagraphics, who have a preview and more here.

Reset

Unemployed comedian/actor Guy Krause gets the opportunity to do what many people would like in this graphic novel: to go back and change his past. He is approached to volunteer for an experiment in virtual reality where he can relive experiences and change their outcomes. Imagine being able to go back and ask out that crush that never was consummated, to mend relationships with estranged parents, to make those changes to avoid that horrible divorce, to make that bet to strike it rich. Guy gets to do all those things and more, and if things go horribly awry, he can hit the reset button and try again.

What makes this book interesting and not just a riff on Groundhog Day is not just that Guy is unstable and unpredictable to the point where he jeopardizes the experiment, but also that there is a mystery as to how the programmers know so much about the intimate details of his past and another as to who exactly is backing this experiment and why. Some of these questions are addressed by the end of this book but some remain clouded. It is a stretch to say that the characters here are likeable, but they are very human, relatable, and intriguing.

Many of the themes in this book are common to the work of Peter Bagge. In the more than three decades he has been working in comics he has explored the mundane realities of people's lives, the outcomes of their choices, and the effects of changing trends and technologies. His series Neat Stuff and Hate are seminal alternative comics works, and his more recent stuff such as Apocalypse Nerd and Other Lives remain topical and relevant. Bagge talks more about his career and work on this series in this interview.

Online reviews I have read about this book have been on the positive side. James Hunt wrote that there is "a strong, traditionally structured story at the heart of this issue and plenty of directions in which it could develop." Chuck Suffel called it "an interesting book, witty and weird," that is enhanced by Bagge's "unique art style." Rob Wells commented that  "Reset isn’t exactly hilarious, but these two comics raised quite a few smiles, and even a few sniggers." Emmanuel Malchiodi wrote that this book was "both funny and engrossing."

Previews for each of the individual issue are available here from the book's publisher Dark Horse.

Happy 55th Birthday, Peter Bagge!

Famous for his swirly, frenetic, and cartoony style, Peter Bagge is a groundbreaking and prolific comics artist whose work helped define and steer the comics art scene after the underground comix period. His editorship of Weirdo as well as his series Neat Stuff in the 1980s led to his work on Hate, and were instrumental in ushering in the alternative comics scenes of the 1990s and 2000s. His works have also appeared in numerous non-comics venues, such as Reason magazine and the notoriously over-the-top tabloid The World Weekly News.

Early in his career, Bagge was published by Robert Crumb in Weirdo and was eventually named editor of that alt-comics precursor. He went on to publish Neat Stuff at Fantagraphics, giving readers a number of different characters and storylines. Among his observational humor and parodies were the brash, annoying Girly Girl, the pathetic man-child Junior, the oblivious Goon in the Moon, the grating shock-jock Studs Kirby, and dysfunctional suburban family The Bradleys.

After this series ended, Buddy, the eldest Bradley son, went on to star in Hate, which along with Dan Clowes' Eightball, is considered one of the major alternative comics series of the 1990s. The early issues of the series followed Buddy as he moved to Seattle and navigated the nascent grunge scene. This series is notable because it shows Buddy aging as it goes along. It is still published today on an annual basis, with Buddy now being a father and cantankerous business owner in New Jersey.

Although Bagge has spent the majority of his career on his own creations and on his own terms, he has had a few forays into the two big comics companies. He wrote and Gilbert Hernandez drew nine issues of the comic book series Yeah!, which was a fun, gorgeous look at a pop band who happened to tour in outer space, for DC Comics. At the same company, he wrote and drew the comics industry parody Sweatshop. He also did some work at Marvel, producing the very interesting and provocative, if not-well-received-at-the-time, The Egomaniacal Spider-Man and The Incorrigible Hulk, which was shelved for a long time before it was finally published in an anthology.

Today, Bagge remains creative, topical, and independent with his work. He has worked on series such as Apocalypse Nerd, a survival story set in the Pacific northwest after a nuclear attack from North Korea. He has also explored the effects of technology on people's lives in the graphic novel Other Lives and series Reset.

In non-comics arenas, Bagge has published a strip about Bat Boy, The World Weekly News's mascot. In that insane run, Bat Boy has all kinds of adventures, gets elected president of the US, and eventually ends up marrying Beyoncé (who, it turns out, is actually a Bigfoot). In a more serious vein, Bagge has been a contributing editor and cartoonist for Reason magazine for a number of years now. This has been the primary forum for his work that details his Libertarian views, and a bunch of his strips have been collected in Everybody is Stupid Except for Me. Bagge talks more about his work and views in this interview.

In 2010, Bagge won the prestigious Inkpot Award for his achievements in comics. He also won Harvey Awards in 1991 for Best Cartoonist and Best New Series for his work on Hate. For his various works over time, he has also been nominated for multiple Eisner Awards.

On top of being an accomplished comics creator Bagge has also been an active musician, for years in a band called the Action Suits and currently in Can You Imagine? Check out their MySpace page for more of their songs, especially if you like a 1960's pop sound with a lot of harmonies.

Is it clear yet that I am a huge fan of this guy? I wish him a very happy birthday!

Everybody is Stupid Except for Me

Not so much a graphic novel as a collection of cartoons from Reason Magazine, this book is full of the excoriating wit of Peter Bagge. Bagge has been cartooning since the 1980s, with work frequently appearing in the seminal comics anthology Weirdo. He went on to his own anthology series Neat Stuff, where he drew and wrote stories about suburban families, talk radio DJs, and assorted social misfits, which led into Hate, a series that followed Buddy Bradley as he moved from suburban New Jersey to grunge-era Seattle. His work is highly regarded, and he has won multiple Harvey Awards for his art and writing.

In this collection, Bagge voices his libertarian views to skewer many topics, from political machinations of war, debates over legalizing marijuana, the mall-ification of America, public funding of professional sports complexes, public funding for art, casino gambling, and funding public transportation. He attacks the political right and left, even his own Libertarian Party. Often, he places himself in the story, as a reporter from a swingers convention or a War on Drugs conference and acts as an average Joe, probing into the ridiculous or shaky underpinnings of political stances and opinions. Although not every topic in the book is appropriate in school, an instructor could find many great examples to cherry-pick for instructional use.

All of the reviews I've read about this book show an appreciation for Bagge's loopy art style but also have some reservation about his opinions. Robot 6's Chris Mautner wrote that whether you agree with his views or not, Bagge is "still one of the funniest cartoonists in America today." Esquire's Tim Hefferman opined that the book is as "combative, iconoclastic, and embittered as its title suggests it would be. It is also smart, thought-provoking, and funny as hell." Ashley Cardiff offers a contrasting opinion of the book, eviscerating Bagge's libertarian views. All said, it seems that the book has the potential to amuse and agitate, an indication Bagge did his job well with these cartoons.

Here is a preview from the collection's publisher Fantagraphics Books.

Most of the cartoons featured in the book can be found on Reason's website if you search for them by title.