Valerie Russo

Valerie Russo stepped onto the pages of Fantagraphics' Hate in 1990, conjured by the singular vision of Peter Bagge at the height of the alternative comics boom — a time when indie publishers were rewriting the rules of what comics could say and who they could be about. Across the series' run through 1998, she keeps company with the likes of Buddy Bradley, Lisa Leavenworth, and the memorably nicknamed Leonard "Stinky" Brown, a cast that made Hate one of the sharpest, most human slices of its generation. With 14 catalog appearances woven through that beloved run, Valerie is the kind of character who rewards readers digging deep into one of alternative comics' crown jewels.