Buddy Bites the Bullet [Paperback]

Peter Bagge (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Complete Buddy Bradley Stories from Hate! | Publication Date: February 2001

One of the most popular and influential cartoonists of the last two decades returns with his stories of twentysomething cynic Buddy Bradley. In this volume, Bagge skewers the occupational frustrations of the Reagan/Bush '80s and the aimless, youthful energy of the early '90s, leading us in this book to the fussy ambivalence permeating the end of the millennium. Buddy Bites the Bullet is the final arc in the 15-year story of Buddy Bradley, collecting the final issues of Bagge's legendary comic book series Hate. Could it be that Buddy and his maniacal girlfriend Lisa finally decide to... grow up? Perhaps, but not before they verge toward an utterly hilarious disintegration with a little help from their friends. Buddy's best-friend Stinky, the one-time rock star turned drug manufacturer, takes center stage in the most riotous chapter that leads to a highly unexpected and deadly end.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In the final collection of Bagge's comix magazine Hate, aging slacker Buddy Bradley is dragged kicking and screaming into adulthood. For the past 15 years, Bagge has chronicled Buddy's wasted life, from alienated high-schooler to directionless Gen-Xer to the not altogether clueless figure of recent stories. The real world rears its ugly head as Buddy begins taking his down-at-the-heels "collectibles" shop seriously, enters the weird, degrading world of adult dating, and faces matrimony ("It's not like I had anything better to do"). Long-departed characters, such as Buddy's ex-girlfriend Valerie and reclusive ex-roommate George, return for curtain calls, and the series has its closest brush ever with seriousness when one of Buddy's pals meets a sudden, violent demise. Bagge's wildly rubbery, "bigfoot" drawing style remains his stock-in-trade in these full-color stories. Hate , one of the most commercially successful alternative comics titles, may be no more, but bet that its cast will resurface in other venues. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

[A] real filmic tone to it...think Clerks meets Dazed and Confused and you're some way there. -- Mark Robertson, The List, 13 December 2001

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156097415X
• ISBN-13: 978-1560974154
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,719,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Say Goodbye, Buddy, August 28, 2001

By 

R. W. Rasband (Heber City, UT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buddy Bites the Bullet (Paperback)

This collection of "HATE!" stories is billed as the last appearance of Buddy Bradley. I rather think we will see Buddy again someday because Bagge does not end his story as much as suspend it. Buddy finally stumbles into adult responsibility: he has his own fledgling business, Lisa is pregnant, and Buddy is down on his creaking knees proposing marriage. He has smartened up somewhat: however some of his buddies begin to pay some scary consequences for their feckless slackery. Once again I'm impressed by the combination of Bagge's precise, almost novelistic characterizations and his wild, hairy, hilarious cartooning. Stinky's sudden self-destruction is shocking, but if you re-read you will find that P.B. has carefully prepared for it; it's almost an archetypal case of personal decline and fall. He lavishes similar care on new characters like Nicole, the nurse who goes on two disastrous dates with Buddy (he thinks she's uptight, but you can sympathize with her desperate attempts to connect with this misanthrope.) George and Val make a cameo appearance that will blow the minds of long-time fans. And Lisa, Buddy's befuddled soul-mate, resurfaces in a highly altered state (Bagge lets his characters change and grow, just like so called real life.) "HATE!" was one of the funniest, most satisfying comics of the '90's. If you are a fan of Kevin Smith's movies, you should get all of Bagge's books immediately.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sigh! So Buddy finally "grows up"....., September 10, 2002

By 

OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buddy Bites the Bullet (Paperback)

These Buddy stories have been such a big "guilty pleasure" for me for so long now that I'm sorry to see them go. For, as the other reviewers have pointed out, this is set up to be the final, anticlimactic installment where Buddy leaves his third-rate, post-industrial, prolonged adolescence for third-rate, post-industrial, adulthood (or at least the superficial trappings of it).
Somehow, I don't think this will be the end of the Buddy Bradley story. Buddy mirrors too closely the fate of the typical "post industrial", working class kid. This won't be the end of his unhappy decline because things continue to get worse for the working class. Even though Buddy has "settled" for a mediocre existance he will not even be allowed to keep that. I rather expect that in a few years Mr. Bradley's business will fail and he will find himself trying to sell his labor as a middle age wage-slave competing against younger versions of himself for the same crummy jobs. Perhaps Bagge could call that story,_Buddy Bites the Big One_.....

5.0 out of 5 stars best buddy ever!!, December 20, 2010

By 

aaron dillon - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Buddy Bites the Bullet (Paperback)

i have read almost all of the buddy stories and followed his and his crews misfortunes over the years and this is an excellent conclusion to the whole story.i couldn't stop laughing out loud at this collection of books.it wraps everything up real nice.