Neat Stuff: Peter Bagge is coming to L.A.

Join us as we discuss flannel shirts, coffee and catching fish with newspaper…

That was a funny line from the invitation sent out the other day by the good folks at Secret Headquarters, the signature emporium for underground comics and graphic novels over on Sunset. What’s the event? It’s a visit next Friday, Aug. 10, by Peter Bagge, the idiosyncratic cartoonist (aren’t they all?) who may be best known for creating the slouching Seattleite named Buddy Bradley, who ranted and meandered through the rainy Emerald City and the pages of the series "Neat Stuff" and "Hate."

It was great watching those Buddy tales unfold from the mid-1980s up through the 1990s to see the scruffy side of the coffeehouse metropolis. If you want to hear the powerful sonic angst of grunge, buy a Nirvana, Pearl Jam or Mudhoney album; if you want to chuckle at the scene’s street-level ennui and overreaching self-importance, pick up a copy of "Hate" from Fantagrahics.

Bagge’s kinetic characters jump (and scream) right off the page. His work has appeared in Reason, Hustler, the Oxford American and the Weekly World News — now how’s that for a resume? He also did some parodies for Marvel Comics of the Hulk and Spider-Man and quite a few record covers for a number of indie-band stalwarts.

The reception is open to the public; I know I’m going to try to make it by. The free event starts at 8 p.m., and a good-size crowd is expected. Bagge doesn’t make it to L.A. often and there's curiosity about "Apocalypse Nerd," the six-part series due early next year from Dark Horse Comics.

-- Geoff Boucher

(Art by Peter Bagge, image courtesy of Fantagraphics.)