Buddy Bradley

Buddy Bradley is the sardonic, slacker protagonist of Peter Bagge's semi-autobiographical alternative comics work, first appearing in Bagge's early Fantagraphics anthology before anchoring the celebrated series Hate. A directionless young man navigating dysfunctional family life and aimless adulthood, Buddy requires no superpowers — his everyman frustrations are the point.

Few characters in alternative comics have burrowed under readers' skin quite like Buddy Bradley — a slacker everyman who stumbled onto the page in 1982 and never really left, accumulating 56 catalog appearances across an astonishing 44-year span that stretches from the Bronze Age all the way into the present. Born out of Fantagraphics' fearless commitment to creator-driven comics, Buddy found his true home in Neat Stuff and then the legendary Hate and its annuals, sharing his messy world with a rotating cast including Lisa Leavenworth, Butch Bradley, Babs Bradley, Betty Bradley, and George Hamilton. That one key-issue designation in his history signals that collectors know something important happened here — and anyone who loves raw, unfiltered, deeply human alternative comics owes it to themselves to find out what.