Peter Bagge's Other Stuff
Ever since Bagge ended his popular Hate series in 1998, he’s been largely concentrating on book-length works, such as Apocalypse Nerd (2008) and Other Lives (2010). Concurrently, he’s been churning out hilarious shorter pieces for magazines, alternative newspapers, and other venues, many of which (as well as some Hate backup strips) are collected here. The pleasing hodgepodge includes multipart sequences featuring Bagge creations like hipster wannabe Lovey and clueless suburbanites Chet and Bunny Leeway (resurrected from Bagge’s 1980s series, Neat Stuff); Bagge-scripted stories drawn by other alt-comics titans, including R. Crumb, Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine, and Gilbert and Jamie Hernandez as well as a story scripted by Alan Moore; graphic reportage and “real-life” biographies of obscure scientists; and “Musical Urban Legends,” ranging from a belligerent Frank Sinatra to a sweetly befuddled Brian Wilson. While his rubbery, exaggerated visual style may be one-note (as effective and appealing as that single note might be), this diverse assortment of work, nearly all of it top-notch, shows that Bagge has plenty of arrows in his artistic quiver. --Gordon Flagg