by Sean Nelson
From Neat Stuff Peter Bagge
The curve of the human spine as drawn by Peter Bagge may not correspond to the arc of the moral universe, but it does bend toward a certain kind of justice. Earlier this year, Fantagraphics published a deluxe, two-volume box of Neat Stuff, the 1985 to 1988 comic book in which Bagge developed his signature style and voice, as well as inventing characters he would follow into his follow-up title, the better known and justly celebrated Hate.
Along with Robert Crumb, Daniel Clowes, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, and a few others, Bagge was an essential mover in the evolution of comics from the somewhat shameful fixation of a cloistered, antisocial superminority to the weirdly acceptable semi-mainstream entertainment they represent today. A lot has happened since Neat Stuff, but when Bagge looks back at the old strips it collects, he says the main question that comes to mind is "What the heck was wrong with me?"