Peter Bagge & Devlin Thompson

This is HATE comicbook #15 by Peter Bagge. I don’t know why it is called HATE because it is not hateful at all. It is sort disgusted with the human race in general because they are so self-centered. You might say his Hate is his humanism.

The protagonist is a young man named Buddy. Buddy owns a used record shop and that is all he wants. He has a dysfunctional immediately family and friends that he seems to always be critical of. None of them sees things for what they really are. Buddy is a non-pretentious pothead who calls it like he sees it. Or maybe “pothead” is a little strong. But he is not above smoking a joint from time to time.

The comic has its funny serious moments… like the time his best friend and long-running character killed himself, shot himself in the head. Buddy and his friends, maybe his brother too, buried the best friend – they didn’t want to explain themselves to the cops.

For a year or so at the comic book racks I was afraid to pick up the comic, afraid it would be full of racial hate. But it wasn’t.

Now, break from Peter Bagge and Hate a moment and let me tell you about a comicbook store that was in Athens, Georgia, in 1994. It was above a boutique shop in the downtown area. The name of it was Bizzarro Wuxtry Comics and ran by Devlin Thompson. I haven't been to Athens in years, so I don't know if it is still there or not.

One time while visiting our son in Athens I went up the stairs to look over their comics and the little short bearded guy was fussing with himself for being irresponsible by not setting aside special comics as they came in because he has a number of walk-in subscribers to certain issues. Later I figured he had to be Devlin Thompson, as the cartoon below describe.

I walked around and selected a few comics to buy. Some of them were hardbound so the amount added up, By this time Devlin and his assistant had some kind of mini basket ball tossing it to each other.

He rung my purchases up and I pulled out a credit card. He told me that he didn’t have an account with credit card companies; I would have to pay for it downstairs in the boutique.

What relationship did he have with the boutique shop?

I carried the adding machine tape downstairs to the boutique and presented the register printout to a snobbish lady that looked like she was in charge. She took my credit card and apologized for the inconvenience and said “some people” are just not responsible enough to carry dealings with credit card companies. As she spoke you could hear the miniature basketball upstairs bounce. Just about two words before the end of the sentence you could hear the basket ball hit something then a shelving unit fall making a terrific bang.

She glanced up, only interrupted for a brief second, and continued her sentence.

Cartoonist Peter Bagge visited Devlin at his Comicbook store once that same year and they went out to eat.

Here is his report: