A bold retelling of the life of the Their Eyes Were Watching God author Peter Bagge has defied the expectations of the comics industry by changing gears from his famous slacker hero Buddy Bradley to documenting the life and times of historical 20th century trailblazers. If Bagge had not already had a New York Times bestseller with his biography of Margaret Sanger, his newest biography, Fire!!: The Zora Neale Hurston Story, would seem to be an unfathomable pairing of author and subject. Yet through Bagge’s skilled cartooning, he turns what could be a rote biography into a bold and dazzling graphic novel, creating a story as brilliant as the life itself. Hurston challenged the norms of what was expected of an African American woman in early 20th century society. The fifth of eight kids from a Baptist family in Alabama, Hurston’s writing prowess blossomed at Howard University, and then Barnard College, where she was the sole black student. She arrived in NYC at the height of the Harlem Renaissance and quickly found herself surrounded by peers such as Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman. Hurston went on to become a noted folklorist and critically acclaimed novelist, including her most provocative work Their Eyes Were Watching God. Despite these landmark achievements, personal tragedies and shifting political winds in the midcentury rendered her almost forgotten by the end of her life. With admiration and respect, Bagge reconstructs her vivid life in resounding full-color.
Author
Peter Bagge was born on December 11th, 1957, and raised in Peekskill, New York, about 40 miles north of New York City. While enrolled in the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1977, Bagge discovered underground comics, and the work of R. Crumb in particular turned what had initially been only a vague interest in cartooning into a passion. In the early '80s Bagge co-published three issues of COMICAL FUNNIES (1980-81), a New York-based comic tabloid which saw the debut of Bagge's dysfunctional suburban family, The Bradleys. Bagge broke into R. Crumb's legendary magazine, WEIRDO, and Bagge took over as managing editor of that magazine from 1983 to 1986. Bagge started his own comic book series, NEAT STUFF, for Fantagraphics Books, producing 15 issues from 1985 to '89. Buddy Bradley, the Bradleys' alienated and pessimistic teenage son, emerged as Neat Stuff's most engaging and fully-realized character. In 1990, NEAT STUFF evolved into a new title, HATE, which exclusively followed the foibles of the semi-autobiographical Buddy Bradley. Hate became the voice of the twenty-nothing slackers as well as being hailed by critics for its brilliant characterization in its complete chronicle of the 1990s. HATE and Buddy Bradley continue to appear in print, albeit less frequently, under the title HATE ANNUAL. Since 1999, Bagge has worked on many other comic-related projects, including writing an all ages comic book for DC called YEAH! (drawn by Gilbert Hernandez). as well as the short lived humor series SWEATSHOP, also for DC. He also wrote and drew a one-shot satire of Spider-Man for Marvel, and has done the same with Marvel's The Hulk, though the later title has yet to be scheduled for release. Other projects include a 2 year stint writing and drawing a weekly comic strip about "Bat Boy" for THE WEEKLY WORLD NEWS, and a series of illustrated essays for the now defunct website Suck.com, which led to his becoming a current regular features contributor to the political and social commentary magazine REASON. Most recently, Bagge has been working on a 6 part mini-series for Dark Horse called APOCALYPSE NERD, which should be complete in 2007. Bagge's exaggerated and distinctively in-your-face illustration style has also appeared on many record and CD covers, and in magazines as far ranging as HUSTLER, MAD and the OXFORD AMERICAN. He's also had a hand in several animation projects, most notably the online "Rock & Roll Dad" cartoon series he co-created with Dana Gould for Icebox.com. Peter Bagge has lived in Seattle since 1984. He resides with his wife Joanne, and daughter Hannah, and three darned cats.
