More Comics
Peter Bagge's Hate Annual #4
By Leroy Douresseaux
February 10, 2004 - 13:40

Fantagraphics Books
Writer(s): Peter Bagge
Penciller(s): Peter Bagge
Cover Artist(s): Peter Bagge



hata_annual004.jpg
For the last four years, the end of the year brings something we fans of the extraordinary cartoonist Peter Bagge desperately need, a HATE ANNUAL, which is apparently the only continuation we will get of Bagge’s late and oft-lamented hit comic series, HATE. The fourth annual is like its predecessors, a combination of original new comix and reprinted essays Bagge has written for various websites and magazines. This year’s Buddy Bradley entry is funny, even if it’s a little wilted and tad bit formulaic. The gags might be strained, but the cartoonist is as electric as ever as he runs his characters through their conflict-o-rama.

For me the annual’s best entries are the essays. Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that a cartoonist who creates the kind of wildly inventive and hilarious strips that Bagge has over his career is also a journalist and essayist of much sass and biting wit, but it is. His disdainful accounts of the 2000 Democratic and Reform Party Conventions are a hoot, but they almost pale next to Bagge’s mini-expose of the beat creators and songwriter/producers behind the late 90’s bubble gum pop conflagration. At $4.95, this is a steal.
[DRECK, DULL, READABLE, VERY GOOD, EXCELLENT]


Related Articles:
Fantagraphics Announces "Peter Bagge's Other Stuff"
Dark Horse Comics Announces New Peter Bagge Title
Peter Bagge's Other Lives
Fantagraphics Bookstore Has Peter Bagge and James Sturm
The Great Peter Bagge at Fantagraphics Bookstore This Saturday
Peter Bagge & Lance Mercer are "Buddies"
Peter Bagge's HATE ANNUAL #5
Peter Bagge's Hate Annual #4
Interview with Peter Bagge