Will Hines Dot Net

So I met Peter Bagge, comic artist of Hate fame and Yeah! “fame” on Saturday night. At the insistence of Julie and Neil, I trucked on down to some gallery in the Lower East side. I didn’t want to go at first, since I was supposed to be writing jokes for my return to stand-up comedy later that night, but Julie and Neil got caught up in their momentum of pushing me to go, and I gave in. And I’m glad I did! Bagge was exactly how you’d hope he’d be: funny and verbal and just uncomfortable looking enough to believe that he is kind of like all the characters he writes.

I love Peter Bagge’s stuff. His comics are the only things besides Ivan Brunetti which are guaranteed to make me laugh out loud at least once per issue. They had my favorite all-time Bagge page for sale, in which Lisa plays truth or dare with uptight Seattle roommate George and demands that he let her sit on his head, which for some reason is the silliest, most hilarious thing to me. I was this close to buying it, but I’m unemployed and I couldn’t justify dropping $500 for a piece of art. Neil got obsessed with trying to talk me into it, which was undercut in a hilarious way by his continual munching on huge bread sticks they had out. But I bet I’ll go back and get that page. You heard me, practical instincts, I’m going back.

What do you say when you meet people whose work you like? I sort of never want to meet people I admire, because I never want to be a creep. But Bagge was easy to talk to. We talked about Hate, Yeah!, Murray Wilson — then I asked him what he thought of recent Love and Rockets stuff and Dan Clowes stuff. It was — well, it was like hanging out with other people I know who love all those comics, except this guy drew half of them. I ducked away when two girls approached wanting to talk to him. Not that Bagge seemed like he was there to pick up comics groupies, but I figured he’s had his share of balding geeks quoting his own stuff back at him for one lifetime.

I also met, via Julie, Charles Burns, who seemed pleasant enough. His Black Hole comics are the most compelling and creepy things since Twin Peaks was something you’d mention in a complimentary fashion. Julie had fun and met Sophie Crumb, who maybe she had met before, I forget. And I had described it earlier as Julie stalking Sophie, but it’s not really stalking, it’s just that Julie thought Sophie was cool and I like making fun of nice things.