Comic Book Hero

Bagge with Gary Leib and Charles Burns at his show in NYC last year.

Peter Bagge is one of the best comic storytellers ever. He’s the creator of Neat Stuff and Hate, and he edited R. Crumb’s Weirdo for a few years. Hate was one of the most important comics ever produced. That’s like saying Swank was the most important porno magazine ever produced or Slim Jim was the most important beef treat ever produced. In other words, AMAZING! He has since moved on to create a new comic masterpiece called Apocalypse Nerd. Everything this man touches becomes totally heterosexual. Let’s find out why:

Vice: You used to edit a comic anthology called Weirdo. What was that experience like—shitty or horrible?

From Hate #2

Peter Bagge: Is it true that one of those old ZAP guys wanted to beat you up? What do you like and dislike about today’s comics? Name three comic artists you’ve seen naked. Do you see yourself doing comics until you die or would you rather do something else?

R. Crumb bares himself.

Bagge deferring the nudity to Stinky. Don’t you think it’s pretty stupid of Vice to have a whole issue devoted to comics? People don’t want to see that kind of shit in Vice. They want to see pictures of guys peeing blood into each other’s mouth and an interview with the girl who ate 10,000 tampons in ten minutes. One of Bagge’s recent strips for . In 30 words or less, why do you think you’re better than Dan Clowes? Dark Horse Comics just put out the first three issues of . Check it out here. Pete’s also got another coming out from Fantagraphics and an album of his old band the Action Suits being released by Presspop on the horizon, in addition to a regular comic feature in magazine.