| Peter Bagge | |
|---|---|
 Bagge at a comics convention in 2016 | |
| Born | (1957-12-11)December 11, 1957 (age 67) Peekskill, New York, U.S. |
| Area | Cartoonist, Writer, Artist |
Notable works | Hate Neat Stuff |
| Awards | Harvey Award, 1991 Inkpot Award, 2010[1] |
| Official website | |
Peter Bagge (pronounced/bæɡ/, as inbag;[2] born December 11, 1957)[3] is an Americancartoonist whose best-known work includes the comicsNeat Stuff andHate. His stories often useblack humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations ofmiddle-class American youth. He won twoHarvey Awards in 1991, one for best cartoonist and one for his work onHate. In recent decades Bagge has done more fact-based comics, everything from biographies to history tocomics journalism. Publishers of Bagge's articles, illustrations, and comics includesuck.com,MAD Magazine,toonlet,Discover, and theWeekly World News, with the comic stripAdventures of Batboy. He has expressed hislibertarian views in features forReason.
Peter Bagge was born inPeekskill, New York,[4] and grew up in the New York City suburbs.[5] Bagge's father was in the military and Bagge has talked about how hisCatholic household was the scene of "lots of drunken fights about money. We were the weirdo outcast kids of the neighborhood. I couldn't get away fast enough."[5] Bagge wasconfirmed as a teenager; hisconfirmation name isPeter Christian Paul Bagge (with Paul being an homage toPaul McCartney.)[6]
Moving to New York City in the mid-1970s, Bagge attended theSchool of Visual Arts for three semesters in 1977 before dropping out[7] to work onPunk magazine.
Among his graphic influences areTex Avery,Bob Clampett,Robert Crumb,Paul Coker,Jack Davis andBasil Wolverton. He also expressed admiration forDave Cooper, andJoe Matt.[8]
Bagge began his career in New York City in the early 1980s, contributing comics and illustrations to variousunderground newspapers andpornography magazines.
In 1980–1981, Bagge co-published the all-comics tabloidComical Funnies with former staffers ofPunk magazine (includingJohn Holmstrom). Bagge sent copies ofComical Funnies to underground comics legendR. Crumb, who published some Bagge strips in the anthology Crumb was editing,Weirdo.[5] Bagge contributed to many issues ofWeirdo from that point forward, mostly illustrating stories written by Dave Carrino. In 1984, Crumb passed on the editorial reins ofWeirdo to Bagge, who edited it for three years (and one guest issue in 1989).
In 1985, Bagge entered into a long professional association with the alternative-comics publisherFantagraphics, beginning with his first solo series,Neat Stuff. This omnibus introduced such characters as Girly-Girl, Junior, Studs Kirby,The Bradleys, andBuddy Bradley.Neat Stuff ran until 1989. Its sequel series,Hate (1990–1998), is Bagge's best-known. After endingHate as a regular title, Bagge has produced a series ofHate Annuals between 2000 - 2010.
Bagge created and wrote an all-ages comic series for DC Comics calledYeah!, about an all-girl rock band, drawn byGilbert Hernandez. The series ran nine issues (1999 to 2000).Sweatshop, published byDC Comics in 2003, was produced, unlike early issues ofHate, with the help of an art team. The series ran six issues.
Starting in 1998 (in a piece forDetails magazine), and really intensely in the years 2000 to 2002, Bagge did a number ofcomics journalism stories—on such topics as politics, theMiss America Pageant, bar culture,Christian rock, and theOscars—mostly forsuck.com.
In 2002, Bagge did his version ofSpider-Man forMarvel Comics. He followed this with aHulk comic,The Incorrigible Hulk, which was completed but never released due to a management change at Marvel Comics at the time. In August 2009,The Incorrigible Hulk was finally released in serialized form for theMarvel Knights imprint'sStrange Tales miniseries.[9]
From 2005 to 2007, Bagge worked onApocalypse Nerd, a comic published byDark Horse Comics about two average, urban males dealing with the aftermath of anuclear attack on thePacific Northwest. Backup stories inApocalypse Nerd featured historically researched anecdotal tales of America'sFounding Fathers. The final issue of the six-issue series was published in 2007. Atrade paperback collection was released in 2008.
Other Lives is a graphic novel written and drawn by Bagge, and published byDC Comics on theirVertigo imprint in 2010. The story revolves around four people, whose real lives—along with their online virtual personas—interact in ultimately disastrous ways.
Reset is a four-part, monthly comic-book miniseries written and illustrated by Bagge and published byDark Horse Comics. The story revolves around a middle-aged, washed-up comic actor who agrees to take part in the development of a computer application that allows him to relive his life in a virtual sense. The first issue was released in April 2012. It was collected into a book that same year.
Starting with the February 2009 issue, the popular science and technology magazineDiscover has featured a continuing series of History of Science comic strips created by Peter Bagge. Bagge's comics feature key characters and events from scientific history.
Bagge is the subject of the first volume ofTwoMorrows Publishing's newComics Introspective series of books, published in 2007.Peter Bagge: Conversations, a collection of interviews with Bagge spanning three decades was published 2015 by theUniversity Press of Mississippi.[10]
His graphic-novel biographies includeWoman Rebel,[11] about birth control advocateMargaret Sanger,Fire!!, about writerZora Neale Hurston,[12] andCredo,[13] about author and political theoristRose Wilder Lane.
In 2003, Bagge became a contributing writer with thelibertarian magazineReason in whose pages he has published both prose and comics pieces over the years. 2009 saw the release of a collection of Bagge's Reason work calledEverybody Is Stupid Except for Me (And Other Astute Observations). A second edition was released in late 2013. Bagge continues to contribute toReason.
Bagge made a series ofanimated commercials forRound Table Pizza. In 2001 Bagge collaborated with comedianDana Gould to produce theMacromedia Flash Internet cartoonMurry Wilson: Rock 'N' Roll Dad. The four-episode series premiered onIcebox.com.[14]
Bagge also played drums for the Seattle based power pop band The Action Suits, and guitar for another power pop band, Can You Imagine.
Bagge's signature elastic, kinetic art style is a product of his love for 1940sWarner Brothers cartoons (especially those directed byBob Clampett). Bagge has said that he "always wanted to capture that sense of movement and exaggeration in a static format. In retrospect this sounds like a futile thing to attempt, but I think I wound up pulling it off better than I ever thought I would."[5]
Bagge's wife Joanne contributescoloring work to her husband's publications.[15]
Bagge has long been openly libertarian in his politics, and many of his comics feature references to this. He opposed theIraq War and criticizedGeorge W. Bush. Bagge voted forLibertarian presidential candidateHarry Browne in2000 andDemocratJohn Kerry in2004 because he "wanted to fire Bush."[16] When asked who he was voting for in the2008 election, he wrote: "If the polls in my home state are close:Obama (McCain is simply too incompetent these days to be president). If not, I'll make a protest vote for[Bob] Barr."[16] In a follow-up article inReason, Bagge stated, "I wound up voting for Barr, and I stand bythat vote more now than I did then!"[17]
Bagge collected his work forReason expressing his Libertarian views in the bookEverybody is Stupid Except Me: and Other Astute Observations.[18] Bagge has continued with his strips covering libertarian issues inHate Annual.[citation needed]
Bagge won the 1991Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist. In addition,Hate won the 1991 Harvey Award for Best New Series,[19] and has been nominated for various Harvey awards in 1990,[20] 1991,[21] 1992,[22] 1993,[23] 1994,[24] 1995,[25] 1996,[26] 1997,[27] 1998[28] and 1999.[29]
Bagge was presented with anInkpot Award atSan Diego Comic-Con in 2010 in recognition of his achievements in comics.[30]
Bagge won the 2021Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for Best Archival Collection/Project: (The Complete Hate {Fantagraphics})
He also was previously nominated for an Eisner Award several times:
Bagge won theUK Comic Art Award for Best Writer/Artist in 1990[31] (and was nominated for the same award in 1992[32] and 1993).[33] In addition,Buddy Bradley from Bagge'sHate won the 1991 UK Comic Art Award for Best Character.[34]
Bagge was also the recipient of a 2014 United States Artists award, and was named aRockefeller Fellow for Literature.[35]
Peter Bagge turned 50 yesterday.
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