Jake the Snake

Born into the gritty, slacker-saturated world of Peter Bagge's Hate — one of Fantagraphics' crown jewels of alternative comics — Jake the Snake made his entrance in 1997, deep in the book's celebrated run. He shares the page with the likes of Buddy Bradley and Leonard "Stinky" Brown, which tells you everything about the anarchic, darkly comic company he keeps. With appearances spread across both Hate and the Hate Annual, he's a small but genuine piece of one of the most distinctive underground comics universes of the Modern Age — the kind of supporting player that devoted Bagge fans will recognize with a knowing grin.