Hate! is a comic book series by Peter Bagge that ran from 1990 to 2011. Its precursor was Neat Stuff which, among other recurring characters, introduced the New Jersey-based Bradley family whose Breakout Character Harold "Buddy" Bradley became the Loser Protagonist of Hate!. The series follows Buddy's life as a slacker through the early nineties (during which he lives in Seattle during the city's heydays of grunge music and alternative subculture) and later back to Jersey where he settles down with his girlfriend Lisa and starts a family himself.
Starting in April 1990, Hate! originally was published by Fantagraphics Books as a black-and-white comic magazine, then changing to colored format from issue #16 onward. After its initial run of 30 issues concluded in 1998, the series was continued in Hate Annual, running from 2000 to 2011. Especially with the rise of slacker culture, grunge music and Generation X angst from subculture phenomena to mainstream success, Hate! became one of the best-selling Underground Comics of the 1990's, spawning foreign issues in Spain and Germany.
Although the Hate! franchise is centered on Buddy, he is surrounded by a multitude of characters, many of which play important roles in the unfolding and development of Buddy's life story. His main love interest is Lisa Leavenworth (with who he has a turbulent relationship that ultimately lasts until the end of the series), although his one-time girlfriend Valerie continues to appear intermittently after their breakup too. Buddy's business partner in several enterprises (such as a collector's shop or a scrap yard), Jay, turns out to be a long lasting supporting character as well. His ever-changing roommates include nerdy George Hamilton and chaos-prone and self-proclaimed "love god" Leonard "Stinky" Brown. Major characters from Buddy's family include his parents, his older sister Babs and, most prominently, his younger brother Butch.
Hate! features examples of the following tropes:
- The '90s: The majority of Hate! issues (#1-30) were released during the 1990s, although the story continues well after the Turn of the Millennium in Hate Annual.
- '90s Hair: Greasy bangs? Bleached blond perms? "Grungy" long hair? You name it, at least one of the characters will have it.
- Animated Adaptation: Since 1995, several plans for an animated Hate! TV series have been made by MTV, Fox, HBO, and other broadcasting companies. So far,
none of these have seen the light of day. (Author Peter Bagge has not been complaining as stated in the foreword to the 2020 deluxe edition: "The development money was usually pretty good.") - Character Death: A few examples of this happen during the run of the series, most notably Stinky and Buddy's dad.
- Chocolate-Frosted Sugar Bombs: More than once, the breakfast of choice for Buddy, Lisa, Butch, and other characters in the comic.
- Cool Car: Subverted with the – at least in Buddy's eyes – extremely uncool monster truck Buddy buys after his return to his hometown. Of course, his new and old neighbors beg to differ.
- Disposing of a Body: In one of Hate!'s most evident examples of Black Comedy, the remains of Stinky undergo a seemingly neverending journey: first they're secretly buried near an abandoned farm, then they're moved to Buddy's backyard, then are buried underneath the garage and finally get dumped in the ocean.
- Dysfunctional Family: Just look at the character page to find out just how many of these are featured in this series...
- Farts on Fire: A spectacular example of this happens when Buddy and Lisa visit Buddy's parents in Jersey when half a dozen kids line up in a row and set their farts on fire simultaneously (!).
- Foreign Remake: The German editions of the Hate! annuals (entitled ''Krass!'', meaning "shocking" or "far out") not only contained the original Buddy Bradley stories translated into German but also new ones drawn and authored by German comic artists. They also transplanted the Buddy and Jay characters to Berlin and made them Germans.
- Functional Addict: For the most part, Buddy has his alcoholism in check, although he more than once suffers from its consequences. His business partner Jay also qualifies, although his drug of choice is heroin rather than booze. Many other characters, including several Bradley family members, share this trait.
- Grunge: The "Buddy Does Seattle" chapters deal with the explosion of this noisy brand of alternative rock onto the national and international scene in a very sarcastic way. Among other things, Buddy becomes the manager of a grunge band (called "Leonard and the Love Gods", itself a Shout-Out to Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone frontman Andy "Landrew the Love God" Wood) and meets Tad Doyle (the actual frontman of TAD) in a later episode. Ironically, Word of God has it that the whole "smelly alternative rock band tries to break big" plot was done before Nirvana made grunge a household name, and that Peter Bagge was accused of taking inspiration from the grunge explosion.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Probably the most recurring trope. Almost any character who appears for more than a dozen panels is prone to explosive reactions to inane situations sooner or later.
- Insufferable Imbecile: Especially from Buddy's point of view, far too many specimens of this kind exist in his world. Among others, his un-friend Stinky or his Jersey neighbor Jimmy would qualify for this trope.
- Joisey: Both the origin and the destination of Buddy's life journey, home to the Bradley family and filled with lots of stereotypes connected to the Garden State.
- One-Word Title: According to the foreword of the deluxe edition, "Love and Hate" was initially planned to be the comic's title but was considered too similar of Fantagraphics's flagship publication Love and Rockets. Co-publisher Kim Thompson then suggested shortening it to just "Hate!" which Peter Bagge thought was both "short and snappy" like classic comic magazines MAD or Zap Comix and also "had that definitely-not-for-kids punch that I was looking for".
- Rubber-Hose Limbs: In Peter Bagge's signature drawing style the characters have few angles and basically look like they have rubber bones. This is often accompanied by similar effects like Wheel o' Feet or Wingding Eyes.
- Suicide as Comedy: Given the context of the comic as such it probably depends on the reader's point of view, but there's definitely a lot of Black Comedy (or at least it's qualifying for a Black Comedy Burst) around the fact that Stinky shoots himself in the head. (This also makes Lisa's Bungled Suicide story from Hate! issue #2 – then mainly Played for Laughs – a kind of Foreshadowing (or
Harsher in Hindsight.) - The Slacker: One of the many things Buddy and many of his friends embody.
- Tone Shift: Because Bagge didn't want his characters to get stuck in Comic-Book Time and also wanted to allow them to develop, the overall tone of the series becomes less zany and also somewhat darker and more in tune with the realities of thirtysomethings once Buddy moves back to Jersey. Overall, however, the change is not dramatic enough to diagnose the Cerebus Syndrome.
- Underground Comics: Although Hate! reached a circulation of up to 30,000 copies during its heyday (and some astonishing 10,000 copies in Spain) it was rooted in the "comix" tradition of Peter Bagge's idol Robert Crumb.
- Work Com: Much of the work-related storyline after Buddy's return to Jersey is centered around the collectables shop he starts with Jay. Later, he owns a scrap yard, developing a rivalry with Jay who opens a similar business right next door to Buddy's. Many typical work-com elements are featured, including the classic Who's Watching the Store? routine but also lots and lots of sarcastic takes on nerd culture.
