Other Lives

by Peter Bagge

A darkly satirical graphic novel exploration ― as only Hate comics creator Peter Bagge is capable of ― of how people's identities, both real and created, become confused and conflated.  Other Lives follows three former college classmates: a self-loathing journalist whose family secret is the least of his problems; his girlfriend, whose obsession with getting married borders on Bridezilla status; a conspiracy theorist who may or may not work for the Homeland Security but definitely lives with his mother; and a divorced, unemployed gaming addict who lives in his car. While it's their past that unites them, it's their fabricated online identities ― some more dangerous than others ― that lead to their "real" lives colliding years later.
Originally published in 2010 by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, Other Lives is Bagge's first post- Hate original graphic novel and has been out of print for several years. Fantagraphics is proud to publish this new edition, at a time when Bagge's oeuvre is enjoying renewed interest following the release of The Complete Hate in late 2020.
Black & white

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Drama, Contemporary, Comix

136 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

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

[Marcos GM · Rating 1 out of 5]

Señoras, señores... He aquí mi primer DNF. He llegado a la mitad y no me gusta, los personajes son todos odiosos y el dibujo no es lo mío. Así que... Adiós muy buenas.

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

Ladies, gentlemen, here you can find my first DNF ever. I've read half of it and I don't want to continue. The characters are hateful all of them, and the art is not my cup of tea, at all. So... farewell and good riddance.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure how to feel about this at first. The ending is quite jarring and I hated it at first!

There's a lot of chatting in this comic, but Bagge does a fantastic job with different characters and dialogue. I'm surprised he doesn't work on TV shows.

The story is basically the intersection of 4 characters. A journalist who struggles with self-esteem, his girlfriend who really wants to get married, an overweight conspiracy theorist who lives with his mom and claims to be a federal agent, and a recently divorced guy with a gambling addiction.

The girlfriend and the divorced guy start playing Second World together. There's a lot of pages of Bagge showing the two characters in the game universe. It's actually quite well done.

Bagge's art is great as always. The one thing I didn't love was the digital grey tones. There's some weird gradients. It's not super distracting but overall the grey makes the book look a bit depressing. It'd be interesting to see this book with Bagge's typical color treatment which is super bright and lively, it'd be a much different reading experience - especially the video game pages.

[Raina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interpersonal drama incorporating social networking sites - particularly one which seems to mirror Second Life (remember Second Life?!?). The tone of the drama reminds me a lot of Alex Robinson's work, but Bagge being the name that he is, the influence probably goes the other way.

Black and white (kinda wish the inside had color like the cover), with Bagge's characteristic bowlegged figures. His characters have a floppy, jello-boned appearance, while at the same time are almost all hunched over, heavy with the weight of human existence.
Lots of adult content, too.

I have a soft spot for ruminations on "the presentation of self in everyday life." What masks do we carry? What parts of our story do we offer up? Can we ever stop playing a role and just be ourselves? There's also a nod to how different people are capable of compartmentalizing life in different ways. Just because one person perceives chemistry doesn't mean the person they're fixating on is feeling the same thing.

Wish this passed the Bechdel Test, tho.

[Julesreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confession time: I have no idea how to rate books, so I usually go either 5 stars or 2/1 star, but I went four stars here to show respect for Bagge’s Buddy Bradley saga (a holy grail of comix). I’d rather explain my rating than the book itself. Is that ok? If not, let me know in the comments section and I’ll take a cat o’ nine tails to my back for every one of you. Bagge is always good at being a critical observer verging on plain spoken philosopher, and Other Lives has a prescience to it. But ultimately Other Lives is ridiculous and fun and it ties together Larry David style, with some dark violence thrown in for that trademark Bagge cartoony morbidity. Thumbs up, whatever world you inhabit.

[Olivia Cranston · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the premise but I thought the execution was fucking weird .

[Omri · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about a journalist, his girlfriend and his friends/family, as things start falling apart on the day to day basis, moving on to the fantastical virtual reality of Second World. What seems to be normal is revealed as concealing many things, with every character, each and his own strange reality. But we soon learn that actually - it is the most normal thing there is. We are not perfect creatures, and this is not a perfect world. Either worlds.

I can't say more than really nice. I enjoyed the read, and the art was working for me in accordance with the plot, characters and the atmosphere, but there was something missing there, in the whole. It did not deliver as I thought it would be, and the moment things started turning a bit out of spin I found myself pulled out of the story, out of the fantastical world, and somewhat detached and unsatisfied. I can't blame the plot, but I think that I blame the characters, because it sometimes felt too much.

[Javier Muñoz · Rating 1 out of 5]

buff, esto ha sido duro... siempre me han gustado los comics de Peter Bagge, incluso los primeros que estaban muy mal dibujados y eran completamente absurdos, pero esta historia no me ha gustado nada. De hecho después de esto tengo miedo de repasar los números de odio y mundo idiota que tengo porque no quiero estropear el buen recuerdo que tengo de ellos.

Other lives no me ha resultado gracioso, ni me han gustado los personajes, ni el tono cínico que tan bien le ha funcionado a Bagge en otras ocasiones me parece acertado... las referencias continuas a second life me han parecido simplonas y mal dirigidas, el final es horrible y el comic me ha parecido un aburrimiento en general... un auténtico desastre.

a ver si para este fin de semana me leo algún comic que merezca la pena porque llevo una semanita...

[Mark Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really funny dark stuff about identity and relationships in the modern world. As always with Peter Bagge, the cartoony drawing style is a riot, but here he is showing the progression of his work from the early days on Hate. There are still the same unapologetically flawed characters, but now he is showing a surer hand with the storytelling.

The parallels between the characters' everyday lives and their online selves was striking, as the confusion in motivations carries from one to the other. The "other lives" hinted in the title are these online selves, the selves we hide from the world and the self-obsessed, delusional selves that we actually walk around in.

Hilarious and revealing. Brilliant new direction for Peter Bagge.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very very good. I'm not particularly a fan of Bagge's work, but this was sharp, funny, and mean-spirited. A real treat. Four people with various degrees of 'secret' lives, including a recent divorcee with an addition to online gambling and living vicariously through "second world." A girl who flirts on "second world" but understands the limits in real life. A chronic self-hater with serious family issues. And a role-player convinced he's part of a government terrorist plot. It's got layers of crazy, and it's very sharp.

[Margot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mmmm... The creepiness of 2nd-life lurkers. This book certainly drives home the point that you never know who the real creeps (or terrorists) are!

[Hannah Garden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zoinks.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been a big Peter Bagge Fan since the late 1980s. I’ve read most of his stuff but this is one that passed me by somehow. It was originally published by Vertigo (DC Comics) back in 2010 but I just noticed it here in 2023.
It’s tough to describe except as the story of four lost thirty-something’s and how their lives connect and collide with one and other’s. As big a Peter a Bagge fan as I am I didn’t really connect with this story. It’s okay. It’s solid but it only really got interesting for me in the third act. That’s better than never at all though.
Baggie’s artwork and visual storytelling is as good as ever in this book so that’s always a treat

[Luciana Gonzales-Daly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Todos tenemos otras vidas y más aún en estos días. En el libro se habla de Second World (un guiño a Second Life) pero podría hablar perfectamente de cualquier medio en donde nos inventamos otra vida que no es la nuestra, a veces cambiándola por completo y otras alterando solo algunas cosas para que parezca mejor.

Una lectura entretenida y un dibujo que me gusta mucho.

[Matthew Pennell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than Reset; not as good as Apocalypse Nerd or Sweatshop. Bagge has a tendency to seem like he has no idea how to end a longer story without making a massive lurch into much less believable territory.

[Sergio Parra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Empieza bien, pero su desarrollo es aburrido y su final absurdo. Hay momentos en que cuesta mucho seguir leyendo bloques de diálogos sin sentido ni interés, especialmente cuando la acción sucede en el mundo virtual.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bagge you magnificent bastard...

[Judit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siendo una fan del mundo virtual, me ha parecido muy crítico pero curioso con ese toquecillo de humor.

[Esagua · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Entretenido.

[Christopher Eckerdt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for originality. Enjoyable? Somewhat. Interested in his other work.

[Dakota · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keenly dark dialogue

[Eulate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generalmente, sucede lo contrario, de ahí las grandes decepciones. En cambio, Other Lives es una novela gráfica que prioriza lo narrativo sobre lo estético, y se agradece.
Una historia compleja e imaginativa, inteligente y muy divertida.

[Diego Munoz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m giving it a five.

The artwork grew on me. The story, which is its strength, is intriguing.

Funny characters, funny situations. But it’s not all funny, the last half becomes dark. And that is what made this book standout for me.

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://gnomeship.blogspot.com/2021/0...

[J. Gonzalez- Blitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perusing some other people's review's of Bagge's non-Hate work, it seems that some people are determined to complain about anything he creates that doesn't include Buddy Bradley.Well, this doesn't, but I enjoyed the new characters we're introduced to nonetheless. I'll admit when I first heard about this book I was skeptical about it's premise---a comic about people going on the internet? In the wrong hands it could have been the most static thing to occur in comics since that one issue of Peepshow(you know the one I'm talking about!) but not only does Bagge deftly intertwine his characters' internet activities with real life, he chooses to illustrate said online activities with full scenes of the virtual world they inhabit. This serves not only to keep the comic visually engaging, but helps the reader to become as immersed in the Second World fantasy as the characters become. As always with Peter Bagge, the strength of the book is in complex characters that draw you in. Bagge's comic universe is not one of heroes and villains, but instead of people with strengths and flaws and issues and baggage that often time are a source of tension as they interact with each other, but although he satirizes and pokes fun, Bagge is never outright dismissive of his characters. At the start of the book, for example, it's easy to laugh of Javy's pathetic attempts to impress some girls in a bar with deluded boasts of himself as a CIA hero (I actually knew a guy like this once!), but by the same token a few chapters later, it's utterly heartbreaking to see him sitting, confused and vulnerable outside a party, ashamed that in a moment of atypical perception he has unwrapped a present he meant to give to someone else.(it should be noted that Javy suffers from schizophrenia.) Similarly, Vader at the start of the book comes across as the most "together" character--a promising career as a journalist, awards, and a fiance.But his neuroses and a deep sense of shame--at his younger dorkier self, his family's past and a horrible breach of ethics early on in his career--soon come to the surface, motivating much of what he does. His fiance Ivy is a character I wish was explored a little more though, since her actions drive much of the plot. Ivy is a seemingly good-natured woman who exhibits an increasingly cruel and destructive streak in her online activity with an anonymous persona. She also engages in what could be described as an "emotional affair" with Vader's colleague Woodrow (the only character who didn't really have any redeeming features, as far as I was concerned)which Bagge details with far more of a sense of intimacy than what exists between her and Vader, despite the fact that she firmly rebuffs Woodrow's real life advances. The ending left me with a few questions about how much fulfillment can be found in a virtual world versus the real one, but all in all a good commentary about how much our online activity can intertwine with our actual lives.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know Bagge best as the wacky creator of Hate, and its irreverent slacker Buddy Bradley. While I’ve mourned the end of his quasi-monthly Hate series in favor of a single annual every year or so (regular he is decidedly not), I was mostly satisfied with his return to off-beat indie comic-dom with this twisted tale of the pathetic lives of four thirty-something social misfits. The crux of this story initially centers on journalist Vader/Vlad and his investigation into the real life of supposed former-CIA agent Otis/Javy. Not only does he soon discover that Otis/Javy is none other than a former gamer-geek with whom Vader/Vlad played decades back. But wait, there’s more. Vlad’s real-life girlfriend Ivy escapes into the online life via Second World, and becomes involved with their friend Woodrow. Not only do they lay waste to much of SW through becoming Bonnie-and-Clyde-style badasses, but they consummate their virtual relationship by hitching the digital knot.

Where this story goes is pretty much down the shit-hole. And that’s a compliment to Bagge, whose perverted sense of humor is so refreshing in a medium usually devoted to caped histrionics. The only downside of this wild and wooly adventure is that it doesn’t look like Bagge plans to return to these lives of these morons. Oh well. I’m more than happy to wait until next year’s Hate Annual.

[Mark Desrosiers · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You and your confessions! Every time you wake up from a nightmare you have another deep dark secret to share!" This quote, from Ivy to her boyfriend Vader, is referring to some of the more psychobabble daddy-issues secrets that emerge in his robust cranium. But he's unique in that we get to view his ghosts, a family lineage that begins far away and follows both money and the immigrant experience in a damn near Scorcesean broad strokes. Other key characters also hinge upon their parents' experience as immigrants, with the only blueblood old-school Amurrican someone by the name of Quincy, who Peter Bagge renders visually as a hybrid of Ned Flanders and Ronald McDonald.

This groovy quartet is soon beset by mysteries, paranoia, and various diverging fantasy lives, with a rather cringey reality being invoked only in Second Life. Even in 2014, where all we do is scrutinized by (or publicized for) our friends, Bagge gives us the grim hilarity of where this all leads, and it's quite a shocker.

Also astonishing: Bagge's rapid, silent depiction of the arrest, detainment, and torture of a terrorist suspect, which begins the book.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I've said before, there's something infinitely comforting about watching Bagge's characters fight with each other and their own anxieties and insecurities.
Whereas Buddy Bradley struggled through his twenties with an eventual settling down in his thirties, the characters of Other Lives continue to struggle finding their place in the world and defining their identities.
If I were to describe all the different issues that the protagonist faces, it might sound a little disjointed to an outsider, but for me it seems to work: Vlad's search for legitimacy as a journalist fits with his discovery of his father's past fits with his shame over his past physical condition fits with the ending. And the other characters' dilemmas fits in nicely with Vlad's. I just can't articulate how.

[Andreas Sekeris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Loved Hate because the characters were flawed and relatable. The characters here are the same.
Found the way he depicted second world initially irritating but worked really well when intercutting with real life events.
Aimed at me in that the guys are slobs and nerds and the girl is cute and very forgiving of her partners flaws.
Enjoyed the plot too. I thought it would just limp to the end but did a good job of concluding satisfactorily.

[Will Hinds · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wowzers was this bad. I'm sorry, I love Peter Bagge, I think he's a great artist but this was darn near insufferable. I trudged through but I can't really believe this was ever published. The ending alone was... out of the blue? Well, the less said the better should anyone else want to read it. Who you ask? Um... people with absolutely nothing better to do? I'm trying to think of something positive... Nope. Sorry. Why this was bound in hardcover is a mystery to me, it gave me the impression that this was an important piece of comic history. Nay nay nay. Anyway, to each their own, I hope this book finds its audience, that just doesn't happen to be me.

[Jon Hewelt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this as much as some of Bagge's other work. There are few central characters that seem to fall the wayside, and the resolution doesn't feel as complete as it's made out to be.

Then again, I don't know. Bagge is a careful storyteller, and that sense of detachment I feel from the work COULD be the same sense of detachment the characters experience with one another, especially in the virtual world.

Meh. It's rare that a work accurately (if not adequately) covers one's experience in cyberspace. Peter Bagge comes close, but I still get that "uncanny valley" feeling from it.

Worth a read. But check out his other stuff, first.