SECOND LIVES is about people's identities, both real and created, and how the two become confused and conflated, particularly through the use of the Internet and an obsessive participation in role-playing games. The story follows three geeky guys who were former college classmates, whose respective make-believe personas lead to their "real" lives colliding ten years later. Added to the mix is the girlfriend of one of these three men, who unlike the men appears to be grounded in reality. However, it's never totally clear until the very end who is play-acting and when. Even the characters themselves aren't always sure - -especially when the outcome is murder.
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From Publishers Weekly
Bagge (Hate) again sets his sights on aspects of contemporary human dysfunction, this time focusing on a cast of characters who each hide behind fabricated identities. Vader Ryderbeck—né Vladimir Rostov—is a journalist who cannot move past his awkward teenage years and wallows in unwarranted self-loathing while coping with what remains of his Russian immigrant family. Vladimir encounters a scruffy conspiracy theorist who claims to work for the CIA, and can't shake the feeling that he's met the guy before. Upon deciding to interview the conspiracy nut, Vladimir sets in motion an escalating series of events involving himself, the alleged CIA operative, his old friend Woodrow (who is now an online gaming addict) and his live-in girlfriend, Ivy, who resorts to an online fantasy gaming persona for fulfillment when Vladimir fails to make good on his feeble marriage proposal. To say more would give away the surprises Bagge has in store for those who approach this story cold; while not as funny as some of his previous works more based on social commentary, this is prime Bagge that will surprise readers with its artistic maturity and a plot that is in no way predictable. (Apr.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Secret identities, a comic-book staple ever since Clark Kent, here receive grimly humorous treatment for the twenty-first century. Best known for chronicling 1990s Seattle slackers in the comic book Hate, Bagge now gives us a quartet of neurotic misfits: insecure journalist Vader Ryderbeck; his girlfriend, Ivy; his computer-savvy friend Woodrow; and Homeland Security agent Otis, an asocial slob who still lives with his mother. Each has secrets, some more dangerous than others. Vader changed his name to escape his family, Otis is an undercover operative gone uncontrollably freelance, and Ivy and Woodrow are carrying on a torrid, avatar-based relationship in the virtual-space “Second World.” They could be grown-up versions of characters from Hate, for besides their misfit status, they share the distinctive speech patterns and attitude of bemused resignation that distinguish Hate’s Buddy Bradley and his friends. What ties them most firmly to their precursors is Bagge’s distinctively wild, broadly cartoony drawing style. Rather than undermining the serious themes that underlie the story, however, Bagge’s loopy visual idiom effectively reinforces the characters’ pathetic-but-humorous, self-delusional nature. --Gordon Flagg
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When I read Peter Bagge comics, I always figure that the style will take me over the weaknesses of the plot. And for the most part that's true, but after the excellent Everybody Is Stupid Except for Me: And Other Astute Observations, this comic is just a giant let down. Following the adventures of four losers who all have things to hide and all try to recreate themselves online, this is a storyline that's full of squandered potential and cheap jokes.
As much as I like Hate comics, I felt like they had really played themselves out by the last few issues. The saga of Buddy and Lisa could only be told so often without tedium. This feels like a sequel with different characters but similar pathos. Every single one of them is trying to put on a new identity for the world and the idea of mixing and matching identities in order to create the identity you want has a long standing existential tradition that should be even more fascinating in the days of computers when we are all trying on different identities in some form or the other (which is why I was a little uncomfortable finding out that most of my RL friends know about my LJ and read it on a regular basis) but these people are just too easy. Ivy comes from a traditional Chinese family and turns herself into a sexy fairy online as she carries on a virtual affair with Woodrow who claims to be a traditional family man with a job but is really a degenerate gambler who is divorced and living in motels. So Woodrow has three identities - family man, loser and king of some virtual realm on Second LIfe or the Sims or whatever. Vader or Vlad actually changes his name to get away from his Russian family who keep showing up throughout and pulling him back into their drama (the belief that you can get away from your family is one of the best fantasies of the 20th century). And to top it all off, there's a conspiracy theorist who claims to work for the FBI but probably doesn't.
Mostly, I didn't like this book as much as I thought because these are pretty easy characters. Bagge has a long standing tradition of writing about losers who aren't going anywhere but trying nonetheless. Knowing intellectually that he was writing about people 10 years younger than himself for Hate doesn't soften the shock when you find out that he was born in 1957 as he was such an astute chronicler of Generation X lifestyles. But with Hate, everything seems fresh. With this book, there's really nothing left but people who are doing their best to ruin their lives and their fantasy lives aren't providing much comfort or even escape. The movie Catfish is similarly about how we create ourselves anew online and that's a fascinating movie but this book works with fascinating topics and renders them bland and childish.
As much as I like Hate comics, I felt like they had really played themselves out by the last few issues. The saga of Buddy and Lisa could only be told so often without tedium. This feels like a sequel with different characters but similar pathos. Every single one of them is trying to put on a new identity for the world and the idea of mixing and matching identities in order to create the identity you want has a long standing existential tradition that should be even more fascinating in the days of computers when we are all trying on different identities in some form or the other (which is why I was a little uncomfortable finding out that most of my RL friends know about my LJ and read it on a regular basis) but these people are just too easy. Ivy comes from a traditional Chinese family and turns herself into a sexy fairy online as she carries on a virtual affair with Woodrow who claims to be a traditional family man with a job but is really a degenerate gambler who is divorced and living in motels. So Woodrow has three identities - family man, loser and king of some virtual realm on Second LIfe or the Sims or whatever. Vader or Vlad actually changes his name to get away from his Russian family who keep showing up throughout and pulling him back into their drama (the belief that you can get away from your family is one of the best fantasies of the 20th century). And to top it all off, there's a conspiracy theorist who claims to work for the FBI but probably doesn't.
Mostly, I didn't like this book as much as I thought because these are pretty easy characters. Bagge has a long standing tradition of writing about losers who aren't going anywhere but trying nonetheless. Knowing intellectually that he was writing about people 10 years younger than himself for Hate doesn't soften the shock when you find out that he was born in 1957 as he was such an astute chronicler of Generation X lifestyles. But with Hate, everything seems fresh. With this book, there's really nothing left but people who are doing their best to ruin their lives and their fantasy lives aren't providing much comfort or even escape. The movie Catfish is similarly about how we create ourselves anew online and that's a fascinating movie but this book works with fascinating topics and renders them bland and childish.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Miguel Cima
Format:Hardcover
If you don't know Peter Bagge, he is one of the great working artists in the humor genre of the comics medium. I've been reading him for almost 25 years, and his work has only matured. OTHER LIVES is a hilarious and insane tour into the emptiness in our modern lives. Centered around characters playing the popular "Second Life" on-line game (or "world"), Bagge takes us up and down a roller-caoster of maladapted mishaps as we watch the private lives of the main characters degenerate further and further. As we learn of each person's secrets - the ones they have both in the real and "virtual" worlds - we are drawn deeper into their personal undoings. As always, Bagge's characters are highly neurotic, and his drawings rivetingly dynamic, with a sharp eye for slapstick and plasticine expression. In other words - it's a BIG LAFF through and through! Plus it's got elements of Dostoyevsky, Chekov, Jacques Tati, Woody Allen, Basil Wolverton and Cher! You can't lose!
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Bagge really captures the eerie dichotomy in post-modern life -- the way the internet creates an alternate reality that swallows increasingly large parts of our lives while remaining invisible to those closest to us in our daily life.
The "virtual" lives of his characters are like the 90% of the iceberg that floats under the surface of the water and when reality crashes into virtuality, lives sink like ships. Powerful stuff.
The "virtual" lives of his characters are like the 90% of the iceberg that floats under the surface of the water and when reality crashes into virtuality, lives sink like ships. Powerful stuff.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb read
Best graphic novel I've read in a while.... Great characters, nice sub plots... a little bit haunting of a read.
Published 16 months ago by M. Gorman
5.0 out of 5 stars
another masterpiece by Bagge
Peter Bagge at the top of his game a master of his craft brings us an insightful look at human nature and the impact that the cyber world of the internet has had upon us. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Kim Aparicio
5.0 out of 5 stars
Which boy name do you like better: "Javy" or "Otis"?
This is a hilarious comic book (sorry, graphic novel) by Peter Bagge. It is about the interlocking lives of four neurotic people. Read more
Published on August 11, 2010 by Johnny Heering
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wear Your Fear Like Heaven
Betrayal, is the most basic human trait.
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We are always exactly just what we don't want to be. Read more
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We are always exactly just what we don't want to be. Read more
Published on August 7, 2010 by Philip S. Wolf
4.0 out of 5 stars
Peter Bagge's Other Lives (Original Graphic Novel)
Peter Bagge's Other Lives was not what I expected to see from DC's Vertigo imprint - in fact, it's not what I expected at all - and that's probably a good thing. Read more
Published on July 26, 2010 by Chris Thompson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very smart, dark, good work
This is another crowning achievement in the career of Peter Bagge. A dark work ( in my opinion darker than Apocalypse Nerd) about modern age escapism done in a way only Mr. Read more
Published on May 20, 2010 by S. Barfield
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