Buddy Bradley, Vol. 3: Fun With Buddy + Lisa

Buddy Bradley #3

by Peter Bagge

Peter Bagge is on his third collection of the comic book HATE. Buddy Bradley is again the teenager with his neurotic friend Lisa. Lisa begins to disintegrate into "Drunken misery".

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Humor, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comix

120 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Peter Bagge is an American cartoonist known for his irreverent, kinetic style and his incisive, black-humored portrayals of middle-class American youth. He first gained recognition with Neat Stuff, which introduced characters such as Buddy Bradley, Girly-Girl, and The Bradleys, and followed it with Hate, his best-known work, which ran through the 1990s and later as annuals. Bagge’s comics often exaggerate the frustrations, absurdities, and reduced expectations of ordinary life, combining influences from Warner Brothers cartoons, underground comix, and classic cartoonists like Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and Robert Crumb. Beyond satire and fiction, Bagge has produced fact-based comics journalism, biographies, and historical comics, contributing to outlets such as suck.com, MAD Magazine, toonlet, Discover, and Reason. His biographical works include Woman Rebel, about Margaret Sanger, Fire!!, on Zora Neale Hurston, and Credo, on Rose Wilder Lane. Bagge has collaborated with major publishers including Fantagraphics, DC Comics, Dark Horse, and Marvel, producing works such as Yeah!, Sweatshop, Apocalypse Nerd, Other Lives, and Reset. He has also worked in animation, creating Flash cartoons and animated commercials, and has been active as a musician in bands such as The Action Suits and Can You Imagine. Bagge’s signature art style is elastic, energetic, and exaggerated, capturing movement and comic expression in a way that amplifies both humor and social commentary. His personal politics are libertarian, frequently reflected in his comics and essays, and he has been a longtime contributor to Reason magazine. Bagge’s work combines biting satire, historical insight, and a relentless visual inventiveness, making him a central figure in American alternative comics for over four decades.

Reviews

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as fucked up, obnoxious, and hilarious as the previous volumes. Bagge is a master of over-the-top caricature, and of presenting the dingy, nasty side of his characters, while still making them seem human, although with a distorted perspective.

[Drew Canole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was just overrated, but it's actually just a near-perfect comic. I can't think of what else you'd want from a comic!


Issue 11 Slumming with Buddy and Lisa
Lisa and Buddy are in a relationship and living like animals. Drinking way too much, not washing themselves. George is fed up. Lisa goes and gets a makeover and later Lisa and Buddy decide to go straight until they can't come up with a single thing totally straight people do for kicks.

Issue 12 Collector Scum
Buddy has a table the local flea market but has issues with a tape seller named Yahtzi Murphy. Lisa decides to help and steals a bag of Yahtzi's tapes - but Yahtzi knows Buddy was involved as shows up at their house where Lisa goes berserk on Yahtzi, creating a feud between Yahtzi and Buddy that won't end anytime soon.

Issue 13 In Search of George...
George has published a zine. Free and a ton of copies! Which features an article dissing Buddy. Buddy tries to find where George is living and finally catches up with him. He's living with an older wealthy(ish) woman who is funding the publications. She gets George to agree to publish Buddy's rebuttal in the next issue of the zine.

I Left My Stash in San Francisco
Leonard is now stuck in San Francisco after his band imploded. He gets a free flight to NYC but while on the plane realizes he forgot his drugs hidden under a mattress at a woman's house.

Issue 14 The Old Flame
Buddy bumps into Valerie at a laundromat and gets invited to her dinner party. He doesn't want Lisa finding out, but gets dressed up nice and goes to the party, which is a disaster. Valerie tells him she still likes him and they makeout but Buddy realizes he's not longer interested.

Stinky Does Gotham
Leonard is now trying to find a gig in NYC but is couch surfing and running out of friends to stay with. He goes to an audition but a girl he's with gets in a fight with the band.

Issue 15 My Pad (Revisited)
Leonard shows up in Seattle to get his room back. But Lisa has promised Valerie that room. Later George wants his room back! And Buddy ends up on the couch. The book ends with Buddy and Lisa heading the Buddy's parents house outside of NYC.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buddy's relationship with Val took a hit, but he's begun a relationship with Lisa. Where Val stands as an ideal for Buddy to live up to (even with her own insecurities), Lisa really just accepts Buddy for who he is and as such allows our hero to really continue his meandering existence in Seattle. This volume sees their relationship blossom, though it's definitely a form of co-dependency that borders on toxic. The opening chapter shows their living conditions have deteriorated to the point of degeneracy, much to the dismay of Buddy's roommate George who goes on to write a magazine article chronicling Buddy's behavior. Meanwhile Leonard's band has imploded leaving him penniless and incapable of continuing his expensive drug habit. Buddy does get a chance to rekindling things with Val, but a rare moment of self-reflection leads him to realize that neither Val nor Seattle are for him. Thus ends Buddy's stretch in Seattle, as does Bagge's potent satire on the cultural notes of a '90s/post-grunge Seattle scene.

Definitely one of the strongest volumes of HATE, with each chapter presenting some amazing visual gags to go alone with the biting commentary from Bagge.

Individual reviews of each chapter contained in "Fun With Buddy + Lisa":
"Slumming With Buddy and Lisa"
"Collector Scum!"
"In Search of the Enigmatic George Cecil Hamilton the Third"
"The Old Flame"
"My Pad (Revisited)"

[Jez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm enjoying revisiting Buddy and crew. Bagge's funny and cynical take on early 90s alt wasters still stands up well. A few things feel dated, or a little awkward (one Jewish reference stands out) but it's still a fine comic.