Bagge, Peter – The Bradleys

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The Bradleys

Ah, a look at where the famous Buddy Bradley came from. I have a problem with the ending, not because of what happens but because… what the hell happens in between the end of this and the start of the first Hate collection? You spend all that time getting people to care about what happens to your characters, then you just make all the bad stuff go away to start the new series. Still, it’s a minor point, and it’s entirely possible that I’m just missing a piece of the puzzle somewhere and I’m getting annoyed for no good reason. This book on it’s own is a vastly entertaining piece of work, and that’s probably how I should take it.

It’s tough to pick a favorite part though. Bab’s Diary was incredible, as was the Christmas story, and the Mom being a phone operator and dealing with the family in general. Granted, Bagge gained a lot of maturity when he focused on Buddy and everything he went through, but I miss the days when the whole family was around and causing havoc. He goes back to them a few times during Hate, so it’s not like they’re lost completely. Just seeing how Babs and Butch turn out in that series is enough to make this essential reading. Try to reconcile the Butch you know from Hate with the one in this series who believes in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. This is another one of that rare bunch of series that I think could be appreciated by everyone, and I think that was shown in the phenomenal sales numbers he had with Fantagraphics. Well, phenomenal for small press comics, anyway.

To anybody who’s thinking of reading Hate over again, I’d recommend highly that you find this book and read it first, if you haven’t already. I’m still confused as to why Stinky’s such a big deal, as he was barely in this book too. And whatever happened to Tom, Buddy’s friend? I guess it doesn’t matter, it just goes to show what a great job he does with characters in his work. So let’s see, the recipe for Hate: read this book, then move onto book two of the collected stuff (the first book is OK, but it’s not like you’re going to be missing an important part of the story as he pretty much skips over a couple of years) and go from there. If you’re dying for more Bagge stuff after that, read the first book and any of the older stuff that’s still in print.