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BAGGE, PETER 1957 is one of the foremost visual humorists of his generation.

Raised in Peekskill, New York, Bagge dropped out of the School of the Visual Arts
(SVA) in his late teens to pursue a career as a cartoonist. His early work appeared in
an eclectic mix of publications, including Punk , World War III Illustrated , and Screw , as
well as in We i r d o , edited by Robert Crumb. In 1983, Crumb turned We i r d o’s editorial
reins over to Bagge, who served as the magazine’s editor for three years. In conjunction
with the Seattle-based publisher Fantagraphics , Bagge became a star of the burgeoning
independent comics scene of the late 1980s and 1990s with his award-winning series
Neat Stuff (1985–89) and Hate (1990–98). Since then he has worked for a variety of
publishers, including DC Comics ( Sweatshop ), Marvel ( Spider-Man ), and Dark Horse
( Apocalypse Nerd ). A forthcoming collection of his cartoon opinion pieces for Reason ,
the libertarian journal, has been announced by Fantagraphics.
While Bagge’s creative output embraces numerous genres, from memoir/autobio-
graphical comics and graphic political commentary to gag cartoons and magazine
illustration, he is best known for his bitterly satirical stories that revolve around sharply
defi ned, over-the-top fi ctional characters. In the pages of Neat Stuff he introduced a
succession of humorous personalities, including talk radio host Studs Kirby, subur-
banites Chet and Bunny Leeway, and the pusillanimous Junior. His dysfunctional New
Jersey family, the Bradleys, proved particularly popular; one urban weekly described their
adventures as “suburban angst at its most violently extreme... the Married with Children
cast going after each other with machine guns and hacksaws.” Th e success of the Bradleys
paved the way for Hate , which featured the adventures of 20-something scion Buddy
Bradley as he pursued a slacker lifestyle in Seattle, only to eventually return to his home-
town in New Jersey with his eccentric girlfriend Lisa. One memorable Buddy Bradley