Buddy's Got Three Moms: Hate Vol. 5 (Humor) (Graphic Novel)

by Peter Bagge

Publisher: Fantagraphics (January 9th, 2000)

Hardcover, 120 pages 

Volume 5 of the Buddy Bradley story from the 90s indie comic Hate. Originally published by Fantagraphics, it ran for 30 issues and was one of the most popular indie comics of the old days. At its height, the comic sold 30,000 copies an issue. Compare that to the fact that the industry leaders Marvel and DC today can barely manage 5,000 copies an issue.

Some claim that it's an indication that comics will die off with Generation X, but I think that it’s more a reflection of how crappy the stories have become. If you hire people to write and draw a comic who don't care about the medium, who think they're above it, and who have no respect for the history and continuity then you are going to produce an inferior product.

Hate came out right as the mainstream began to identify grunge culture, which is essentially what the comic is about.  It's difficult to find a more defining Generation X comic than this. It is the 90s wrapped up between two covers. Leading through it takes me back to the fashioned, the attitudes, the technology, the problems, and the joys of my youth. All of it perfectly encapsulated here. As such, younger readers may not enjoy it as much, or perhaps they can look at it as a time machine.

Its protagonist, Buddy Bradley, is a latter day Holden Caulfield. He is slacker who doesn't really want to grow up and is perpetually angered that he has to deal with the minutiae of life. It’s no great wonder that he's in no hurry to grow up consider info the dysfunctional state of his own family. The father is a boozed-out alkie, the mother is a classic enabler, the sister is a single mother of two, and the brother is a jock bully lay-about. They barely tolerate each other and seem to do so simply out of familiarity. Their chief method of communication is screaming.

In this volume, Buddy has moved back into his parent’s house with his mentally ill girlfriend, Lisa. He has opened up a collectibles shop with his druggie friend, but doesn't make enough to get his own place in New Jersey. The family is as dysfunctional as you can be, hitting all the red flags along the way- alcohol and drug abuse, inability to communicate without screaming, disrespect for education, and low paying jobs. This creates a powder keg situation which can explode at any time.

Buddy is not a pleasant character. You don’t root for him or wish him well. Just the opposite, you keep reading hoping that he will crash and burn, that his arrogance and incompetence will catch up and leave him with nothing. A perfect anti-hero.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.