The Complete Neat Stuff

by Peter Bagge

This is a deluxe box-set collection of Peter Bagge’s groundbreaking comic books. Neat Stuff is Bagge’s one-man humor anthology that ran from 1985 to 1989 for fifteen issues and introduced the world to Girly Girl & Chuckie-Boy, the reactionary talk radio host Studs Kirby, the hulking misfit Junior, suburbanites Chet and Bunny Leeway, the Goon on the Moon, lounge lizard Zoove Groover, and Bagge’s signature creations, The Bradleys. Black & white with 32 pages of color.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Humor, Art, Comic Book, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

488 pages, Hardcover

First published August 7, 2016

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

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaaaahhhh … Neat Stuff! I'm a bit sentimental about this series because I’m one of the folks who purchased a copy of Neat Stuff #1 back in the day. I knew nothing about Peter Bagge at the time, just that it was the first issue of a new series from Fantagraphics--the publishers of Love & Rockets!--and it looked kind of cool. I even remember writing a mildly irate letter to The Comics Buyers’ Guide after they published a rather negative review of it. Sure, it was a bit rough around the edges, but I didn't think it was *that* bad …

Anyway, Neat Stuff led to Hate (and I believe a spiffy slipcased edition of *that* series is in the works as well), and the rest is history. Fantagraphics has pulled out all the stops to produce this handsome two-volume set of the complete series. These books may even be slightly larger in terms of page size than Neat Stuff’s original magazine format. So many classic characters: Girly Girl, Junior, Studs Kirby, and of course the Bradleys! They're all here.

Story quality is a bit spotty at the beginning. Bagge was still working through his influences and figuring out his strengths as a cartoonist. You can see the series getting better with every issue as he starts allowing the characters to drive the comedy rather than relying so heavily on gross-out humor.

The Complete Neat Stuff is a must-read for any fan of Peter Bagge’s work. Highly recommended!

[Peter Derk · Rating 3 out of 5]

These comics just make me think of the 80's and 90's, when no one gave A FUCK about comics, so they could kind of be whatever.

We could ask What If's. In fact, let's explore some of the What If? comics by title:

What if Barbara Ketch had become the Ghost Rider?: My guess is that it'd be pretty much the same, but Ghost Rider would have huge jugs. Although it would be kind of funny, you often see ladies riding on the back of motorcycles, if Ghost Rider was behind someone because Ghost Rider herself did not know how to drive a motorcycle.

What if Iron Man sold out?: This has to be the most 90's title and premise I've ever heard. What if a billionaire industrialist "sold out?" This is probably a one-pager: "Nobody noticed the difference."

What if Storm of the X-Men had remained a thief?: Frankly, I like the idea of Storm doing pretty much what she does now, but occasionally pocketing something from Dr. Strange's house or whatever.

What if Captain America had awoken in a dystopian America?: OMG, so prescient? No longer a what if!? Look at me doing politics!

What if Wolverine was a wimp?: How is this a what if? Ooo, shots fired!

What if the Ghost Rider was different?: That's...awfully non-specific. Isn't that sort of the premise of every what if? What if one of the Marvel heroes was different?

What if Magneto took over the U.S.A.?: I'm guessing it'd be dope AF for mutants, shitty for humans, and a lot of ball bearings and other metal shit would be laying around just in case.

What if Spider-Man had kept his six arms?: I've read this one, and it's actually way better than it has any business being.

What if Captain America was revived in 1994?: He would've been in luck because he'd be coming into the world about the same time as Tag Team's "Whoomp! There It Is," meaning he'd be able to live most of his post-frozen life with this excellent jam available to him.

[Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read most of this years ago, not so much in Neat Stuff, but in the Fantagraphics comix reprints of The Bradleys & Junior mags. I remember reading about Chet & Bunny Leeway in the one NS issue I had (Zoove Groover) & in Weirdo (I'm sure?). Reading all of this right now in one setting is a little overwhelming. In a good way.

I've got to say that initially in the 90's when I started reading HATE regularly that I had a LOVE/HATE regard for Bagge. I admired his dynamic art by itself it was mind-blowing in it's way but I was put off by this cartoonish over-the-top style when combined w/the reality of his stories. In Neat Stuff, Bagge's characters like the Bradley family, Studs Kirby & pals & enemies, and Chet & Bunny Leeway are real characters to me, real people who are definitely taking part in the real America of the 80's and in real life situations of family life, work (or in Buddy's case not-work), school, sex, social-politics & just the topsy-turvy life of suburban and urban America of the 80's (eerily & frustratingly similar to that of USA 2020).

There were times I just couldn't reconcile the actual profound concerns of these real people I was reading about and the cartoonish yet beautiful drawing style. I would quit reading Bagge w/disgust. True. I don't know what it is that's made me reconcile it in my mind, with age maybe I haven't gained wisdom so much as acceptance of my imperfect expectations and have set them aside and just appreciated this for what it is, imperfect art which is almost amazingly great nonetheless.
Of course Girly-Girl & Chuckie Boy who I used to hate, mind you, I now can laugh out loud at and accept as just scabrous slap-stick satire. As well I can accept the crazy razor-tooth snarls and mad-eyed leers of the "normal" characters of the Bradleys, Leeways, Kirby & gang. I can laugh and DO laugh at all the mayhem and still am caught by the very real poignancy of their (and our) existence.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the box edition of the complete series for Neat Stuff, collecting all 15 issues of the indie comic from the 1980s. For those of you who might know the name of Peter Bagge, it probably comes from his indie comic sensation Hate about the adventures of disaffected youth Buddy Bradley in Seattle in his early 20s. It was the right comic at the right time and dead-on hit Generation X just as they began to bloom. But before that, the comic was Neat Stuff. It was an anthology comic. Each issue varied between a collection of wildly different characters, and that might have been its flaw. The reader was never sure what to expect. One issue might feature a variety of small bits, while the next would be dominated by a single story.

The features for Neat Stuff are: Girly Girl - a leering troublemaker who finds humor in dead animals, festering sores and clobbering child psychologists with baseball bats. True to form, her first strip appearance ended with her being squashed underfoot by her unseen "biggest fan". Studs Kirby - a reactionary talk radio host who lives in the past, gets drunk, rants on with his ill-informed opinions. Junior - a hulking wimp social inadequate who lives with his mother and is terrified of the outside world. The Goon On The Moon - a pornography obsessed, friendless loser who lives on the moon. Chet and Bunny Leeway - a young couple who are dissatisfied with their increasingly tedious lives.

The standouts, however, were The Bradleys - a dysfunctional family, apparently based on Bagge's own family. Brad Bradley, the father, is an overweight, perpetually complaining slob. Betty Bradley, the mother, is a God-fearing, occasionally foul-tempered 'woman of the eighties', whilst their children, Butch (a gullible, war-mad pre-teen), Babs (a plain, self-absorbed teenage girl with retainers on her teeth) and Buddy (a retro music-loving slacker) alternate between fighting each other and their own parents. These characters carried onto Hate.

[Colin Murtagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember buying issues of Neat Stuff as they were coming out, more years ago than I care to remember. So when I came across this two volume hard back collection, I really had to have it. I was a little worried that it wouldn't be as good as I remembered it, but I really shouldn't have. It's still great.
I've never really understood why Bagge has never been spoken of in the same terms as Chester Brown, or Joe Matt. His story telling is as strong as theirs are, I think his art being more cartoonish may be turning folk off. Personally I like it.
This is where he really started with his characters. Girly Girl, a slightly sociopathic little girl, The Goon from the Moon, a pathetic character who life seems to happen to, Junior, a really soppy hulk of a man, Studs Kirby, a right wing radio host, and my two favourites, Buddy Bradley & Chet/Bunny.
While there's a lot to enjoy with all of them, the last two are the ones that really stand out. Chet and Bunny are a cynical GenX couple. Married but unable to take happiness in anything, they don't appear too many times but every time they do it's a gem.
Buddy on the other hand turned into Bagges signature creation. A waster living at home with his mum, dad and younger sister and brother. I actually have more sympathy with his Mum. Although she's still religious, she's trying to keep her family together. Buddy spends his time on 60s music and dope, Babs is only interested in boys and popularity and Butch looks like he's going to be a proper hard case when he grows up. Dad on the other hand is only interested in booze and sports. He may as well not be there. It’s the original dysfunctional family. After Neat Stuff finished, he moved onto a new comic, Hate, where Buddy really came into his own. This however, is where it all started.

[Jake Nap · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone that consumes a lot of comics in his free time, I’ve largely strayed away from more comedic cartoonists. I don’t know why, I’ve always resonated more with serious dramas, memoirs or other things: but never comedies. Neat Stuff by Peter Bagge is most definitely a gag comic, but it’s a gag comic with a lot of depth. Throughout Neat Stuff, Bagge introduces and deals with a wealth of social issues and pokes fun at both sides of the political binary. Neat Stuff addresses these things through several reoccurring strips. We have Girly Girl, a strip about a very evil little girl who wants nothing more than to hurt and annoy other people. There’s Junior, a man who’s to scared to do anything on his own. There’s also the Bradleys who’re the breakout stars of Neat Stuff. With The Bradleys, Bagge does a lot of semi-autobiographical stories that have a grounded, dysfunctional middle class family at its core. I’d beat money that the show runners for Malcom in The Middle were reading Bagge’s stories about the Bradleys because I could really see a resemblance. There are plenty of other reoccurring characters and strips but those are just 3 of the many.

The art in Neat Stuff is solid overall. Bagge is an expert cartoonist and he does a great job conveying emotion in the really hyperbolized way. His characters will distort and get less human-like the angrier they get. In fact, Bagge illustrates a lot of arguments throughout that are actually very entertaining to read. Between the visual storytelling of his art and the words that accompany them, every page is a pleasure to read.

Overall, Neat Stuff is an excellent read. Definitely one of my favorites from the 80’s

9/10

[Ruz El · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

I enjoyed this one. I came to Bagge when he was publishing HATE in the 90s, so I mostly knew the Bradleys material through that and the trade paperbacks. I don't think I've even seen an issue of this in the wild in my neck of the woods. Reading this collection, the Bradley's quickly rise to the top, but there's a lot to be said about the rest of it. Out of the characters, Stud's is the best, and it says something for Bagge to be poking fun with a middle aged crank of a character like this. The rest are fun, mostly due to how energetic and wild the art is. Bagge never had a typical style, and to see him experiment in these issues is a real joy. The main negative is due to the misanthropic nature and times, let's just say a lot of the humour is "politically incorrect", in a way that is was pushing it THEN, forget about now in 2025. I don't remember Buddy being such a horrendous shit, but of course he was. I WAS back in the day. Bagge does call out and punch in the right direction, which helps this to hold up.

Over all, it's a beautiful set and I'm happy to have it.

[Victor · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Some of it's shaky early work used to fill out pages in the original publications, some of it hasn't aged well, and all of it feels much more 70s than 80s, weirdly. I admit I only have a casual familiarity with Peter Bagge--I've read all of his material in Weirdo and a few other anthologies and I read a couple of early issues of Hate WAY back in the day under less than sober circumstances and I remember rolling my eyes at them--but I decided to do something about that and grabbed this and The Complete Hate this month, and while I like some of this it definitely feels like the journeyman work it was in Bagge's life. Fingers crossed for Hate.

[Kyle Burley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd always thought of Peter Bagge as a quintessentially 90's artist but this early work proves he was a fully-formed talent by the mid-80's. "Neat Stuff" was a one-man humor anthology that helped solidify him as the Harvey Kurtzman/Robert Crumb of his time.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I “HATE”D this. (See what I did there) Wacka wacka

[Dair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pete Bagge’s Neat Stuff shows him learning his trade. Some stories don’t quite work, but the volume as a whole is very good. We see him becoming the artist that really shines in his next series Hate.

[Jon Hewelt · Rating 4 out of 5]

ReRead 3 June 2024

[Neil Carey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny, feverish document of the first generation of Americans to get stepped on by Boomer Capitalism