Buddy Bradley
Encyclopedia
Harold "Buddy" William Bradley Jr. generally referred to as Buddy Bradley is a comic book character created by Peter Bagge
and featured in several of his comic books, most notably Hate
and Neat Stuff
. The character first appeared in Bagge's self published Comical Funnies in 1981.
and J. D. King, Comical Funnies. The Bradleys family was based on Bagge's own, with Buddy being the character he most identified with. He recognised "what a great vehicle the Bradley's oldest son, Buddy, served as a way of re-telling stories from my own distant- and all too vivid - past."
Bagge has said Buddy's life shadows events in his own but Buddy is ten years younger than Bagge. This, according to Bagge, "creates just the right amount of time and distance between myself and my own experiences where I can laugh at my problems and woes rather than cry and wail about them".
Buddy appeared with Bradleys again in Neat Stuff from 1985 until 1989, featuring particularly in issues # 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15. He then became the main character in Hate, featuring in all 30 issues from 1989 to 1998, and in all 9 of the Hate Annuals up until the present. The Bradleys stories from Neat Stuff were collected in the 1999 6-issue comic series The Bradleys, which was also compiled into a trade paperback.
Initial drawings of Buddy have his defining features; a large nose
and hair that covers his eyes. Differences were the nose was originally hooked with flaired nostrils and his floppy bangs
were neater with individual strands of hair instead of being solid black.
Bagge perfected the most well-known rendition of Buddy around 1986 and did not significantly change the look of the character until 2004. He was always drawn with black scruffy hair covering his eyes, a large nose and dressed in sneakers, blue jeans
and, until 1994, a checked
flannel
shirt
. In the "The Bradleys" strips in Neat Stuff, Buddy has acne
spots all over his face. By the time of Hate the acne had cleared up.
By the time of The Bradleys stories he was drawn in a fairly ligne claire
style with occasional shading. In the early copies of Hate, Bagge began using cross-hatching extensively, so Buddy's face always had a dark, textured look. When Bagge began employing a number of inkers and colorists after issue #14, the style returned to much cleaner, simpler-lined characters like in Neat Stuff, although they were more exaggerated in facial features and the body shape of Buddy became less angular with more rounded, spaghetti
-like limbs. Bagge's use of highly exaggerated, less naturalistic facial expressions to make the characters express strong emotion
s increased over this period, until it became a trademark
of Hate. When he was angry Buddy would be drawn with jagged, fang
-like teeth, a large gaping mouth and huge bulging eyes, with steam rising from his head.
When he moved back to Jersey, Buddy stopped wearing his trademark flannel shirt and could be seen in a variety of plain single color shirts, most usually a bright yellow shirt.
In 2004, for Hate Annual #5, Bagge started drawing Buddy with a shaved head, wearing a sailor's hat and an eyepatch. This is how he currently appears. Bagge explained this change in Buddy's appearence by saying "I realized Buddy still looked the same as he did when he was a teen, even though I had aged him well into his mid-30s. So I decide to age him visually somehow, while also highlighting his gradual descent into a crazy old coot who works at a dump. He doesn't need the eye patch, of course; it's just an affectation." He also said the decision to change Buddy related to a comedy routine by his collaborator, comedian
Dana Gould
. "He talks about when he was a kid, his dream job was to be the crazy old guy with one eye that works at the dump. When I was a kid, we’d go to the dump, and I used to wish that I was that guy. So I decided that that should be Buddy."
Other artists who have drawn Buddy are David Coulson, an illustrator
friend of Bagge's, who drew a Bradleys story which appeared in Weirdo #13 in 1985, and German
artist Guido Sieber, who drew three Buddy stories in 1998 for a German version of Hate called Kraß (Krass). In this story, Sieber moved the character from Seattle to Berlin. Jim Blanchard was also credited as Art Director
and was credited alongside Bagge on the title pages on the last 15 issues of Hate.
in a Roman Catholic family. As he became a high school
student he had frequent violent disagreements with his family as he tried to find independence and began to question their values. He spent time with schoolfriends Tom and Kevin driving around getting stoned, although he became increasingly isolated from them too. In the story "Hippy House" from Neat Stuff #9 he mentions he believes he was considered the "school weirdo".
He also started spending a lot of his time in second hand
record stores, where he met Jay, an older role model whom Buddy admired, leading to him become interested in sixties music
. After graduation
he became a small time drug dealer selling marajuana to friends and spending the money on vinyl records.
Buddy ran away from home when a drug deal went wrong, his stash stolen by two small children, leading to him damaging his father's car and leaving his younger brother in a 7 eleven. At first he slept on a polluted beach.
. This was demolished after two months, so Buddy moved back to Jersey and lived in Hoboken
. Stinky and Buddy decided to see the country, moving to Minneapolis on a whim, which they soon regretted.
They set out for the West Coast
and ended up in Seattle, moving into an apartment
with the reclusive George. Buddy got a job at a used bookstore. He went to a pool hall
with Stinky, where he met Valerie and the pair began dating. Buddy had concerns that Valerie may be too high class and intellectual for him. However the couple stayed together for some time, and it was Buddy's first serious relationship
, with him meeting Valerie's parents. Valerie's housemate, Lisa made a pass at Buddy and tried to warn him off Valerie, which he reacted angrily to, dumping her in a trash can.
Buddy managed a teenage rock band
, which became locally successful when Buddy made Stinky be lead singer. At the same time Buddy became distant from Valerie as he put more time into the band and she left him, going off with her boss to Paris. Buddy left his rock manager job when he had an argument with the band at the start of their first tour and went back to Seattle.
He began a strange relationship with the mentally unstable Lisa, which led to him quitting his job at the bookstore. He then tried becoming a second hand collectables dealer, but ran into trouble with rival dealer and criminal Yahtzi Murphy making it difficult for him to work in that field in Seattle again.
With his apartment becoming increasingly crowded and scared of reprisals from Murphy, Buddy returned to his parents in Jersey with Lisa following. Buddy bought a second hand monster truck
to drive around in.
He reunited with Jay, who suggested they go into the collectables and memorabilia business together. They set up a store
in Paterson, N.J.
, which was fairly successful, but Buddy challenged Jay over his erratic approach to business
and his drug habit, and ended up buying out Jay's share of the business, becoming the sole owner. In Hate #22 Buddy's father was hit by a truck and died instantly. His mother started dating another man and was never around the house, meaning Buddy's home was taken over by his criminal acquaintances and neighbors.
Buddy moved into the backroom of his store when his mother moved to Florida
with her new partner.
Buddy's relationship with Lisa got worse, he was confused and angered by her mood swing
s and erratic behaviour, having an unhelpful foray into relationship counselling. Eventually Lisa left him for a bi-sexual co-worker. Buddy tried to track her down with the help of Jay's girlfriend, and found her living in an apartment in New York City
. After going on a series of disastrous dates with other women, Buddy was reunited with a calmer, medicated Lisa and they had sex; he then helped her sneak away from her increasingly domineering girlfriend. At the end of Hate #30, Lisa revealed she was pregnant with Buddy's child, and when she was determined not to get an abortion
he marries
her, rather than have his son being brought up by Lisa's family or put up for adoption
.
. He was making a good living at it but was bored and felt stuck in a rut. He tried finding a different career, considered becoming a tour guide
with Jay and tried being a UPS
delivery man, but he resisted working with his former nefarious
friends and acquaintances. Moving to a house next to a junk yard, he eventually went into business with Jay as a scrap
metal
dealer. He shaved his hair off and started wearing an eyepatch
and sailor hat. He returned to Seattle with Lisa to visit her ailing parents, Lisa deciding to stay and sort out their affairs, so Buddy planned to return home to New Jersey with Harold and look after him on his own for a while.
and pessimistic
version of himself.
In their review of the Buddy Does Seattle trade paperback, Publisher's Weekly commented on Buddy: "The title character is perhaps the most honestly portrayed everyman the medium has ever seen, an antihero whose utter obnoxiousness, "who cares" attitude and disdain for everyone and everything around him make him as believable as any comics character can be."
announced it had commissioned a script for a pilot of The Bradleys cartoon series. The script was to be written by Bagge and Matthew Lawton, who were also to be executive producers along with Barry Katz, Brian Volk-Weiss
and Michael Pelmont.
The character appeared in an 2006 Greek
television commercial for cellphone company Mo'Mad.
volumes, published by Fantagraphics:
Buddy Does Seattle collects Hate 1-15 in a single volume.
Buddy Does Jersey collects Hate 1994-1998 in a single volume.
Since 2000, Bradley's exploits have continued in Hate Annual.
Peter Bagge
Peter Bagge is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of Buddy Bradley, Hate, Neat Stuff, Martini Baton, and Sweatshop, Apocalypse Nerd and Other Lives. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth...
and featured in several of his comic books, most notably Hate
Hate (comic)
Hate is a semi-autobiographical comic book by writer-artist Peter Bagge. First published by Fantagraphics in 1990 it ran for 30 issues, and was one of the best-selling alternative comics of the 1990s, at its height selling 30,000 copies an issue...
and Neat Stuff
Neat Stuff
Neat Stuff is an American alternative comic book series created by Peter Bagge and published by Fantagraphics. It ran from 1985 to 1989 for sixteen issues. Each takes the form of a series of short stories featuring different sets of characters, although some issues feature full-length stories...
. The character first appeared in Bagge's self published Comical Funnies in 1981.
Publication history and development
Buddy Bradley first appeared with the rest of the Bradleys in Bagge's short-lived early 1980s publication with John HolmstromJohn Holmstrom
John Holmstrom is an American underground cartoonist and writer. He is best known for illustrating the covers of the Ramones albums Rocket to Russia and Road to Ruin, as well as his characters Bosko and Joe .As the founding editor of Punk Magazine at the age of 21 in late 1975, Holmstrom's work...
and J. D. King, Comical Funnies. The Bradleys family was based on Bagge's own, with Buddy being the character he most identified with. He recognised "what a great vehicle the Bradley's oldest son, Buddy, served as a way of re-telling stories from my own distant- and all too vivid - past."
Bagge has said Buddy's life shadows events in his own but Buddy is ten years younger than Bagge. This, according to Bagge, "creates just the right amount of time and distance between myself and my own experiences where I can laugh at my problems and woes rather than cry and wail about them".
Buddy appeared with Bradleys again in Neat Stuff from 1985 until 1989, featuring particularly in issues # 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15. He then became the main character in Hate, featuring in all 30 issues from 1989 to 1998, and in all 9 of the Hate Annuals up until the present. The Bradleys stories from Neat Stuff were collected in the 1999 6-issue comic series The Bradleys, which was also compiled into a trade paperback.
Initial drawings of Buddy have his defining features; a large nose
Nose
Anatomically, a nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the mouth. Behind the nose are the olfactory mucosa and the sinuses. Behind the nasal cavity, air next passes through the pharynx, shared with the...
and hair that covers his eyes. Differences were the nose was originally hooked with flaired nostrils and his floppy bangs
Fringe (hair)
Fringe are a shaped cutting of the front part of the hair so that it is combed forward and hangs or curls over the forehead. A classic fringe is cut fairly straight at or above the eyebrows, but fringes can also be ragged or ruffled, spiked up with hair gel, swept to one side or the other, and...
were neater with individual strands of hair instead of being solid black.
Bagge perfected the most well-known rendition of Buddy around 1986 and did not significantly change the look of the character until 2004. He was always drawn with black scruffy hair covering his eyes, a large nose and dressed in sneakers, blue jeans
Jeans
Jeans are trousers made from denim. Some of the earliest American blue jeans were made by Jacob Davis, Calvin Rogers, and Levi Strauss in 1873. Starting in the 1950s, jeans, originally designed for cowboys, became popular among teenagers. Historic brands include Levi's, Lee, and Wrangler...
and, until 1994, a checked
Check (fabric)
A check is a pattern consisting of crossed horizontal and vertical lines forming squares.-Etymology:...
flannel
Flannel
Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of various fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fibre. Flannel may be brushed to create extra softness or remain unbrushed. The brushing process is a mechanical process...
shirt
Shirt
A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body. Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for almost any garment other than outerwear such as sweaters, coats, jackets, or undergarments such as bras, vests or base layers...
. In the "The Bradleys" strips in Neat Stuff, Buddy has acne
Acne
Acne is a general term used for acneiform eruptions. It is usually used as a synonym for acne vulgaris, but may also refer to:*Acne aestivalis*Acne conglobata*Acne cosmetica*Acne fulminans*Acne keloidalis nuchae*Acne mechanica...
spots all over his face. By the time of Hate the acne had cleared up.
By the time of The Bradleys stories he was drawn in a fairly ligne claire
Ligne claire
Ligne claire is a style of drawing pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian creator of The Adventures of Tintin. It uses clear strong lines of uniform importance. Artists working in it do not use hatching, while contrast is downplayed as well...
style with occasional shading. In the early copies of Hate, Bagge began using cross-hatching extensively, so Buddy's face always had a dark, textured look. When Bagge began employing a number of inkers and colorists after issue #14, the style returned to much cleaner, simpler-lined characters like in Neat Stuff, although they were more exaggerated in facial features and the body shape of Buddy became less angular with more rounded, spaghetti
Spaghetti
Spaghetti is a long, thin, cylindrical pasta of Italian origin. Spaghetti is made of semolina or flour and water. Italian dried spaghetti is made from durum wheat semolina, but outside of Italy it may be made with other kinds of flour...
-like limbs. Bagge's use of highly exaggerated, less naturalistic facial expressions to make the characters express strong emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
s increased over this period, until it became a trademark
Trademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
of Hate. When he was angry Buddy would be drawn with jagged, fang
Fang
Fang is a mammal's canine tooth.Fang may also refer to:* A snake's poison-injecting tooth: see snake venom* Fang people, in Central Africa* Fang language, spoken by Fang people...
-like teeth, a large gaping mouth and huge bulging eyes, with steam rising from his head.
When he moved back to Jersey, Buddy stopped wearing his trademark flannel shirt and could be seen in a variety of plain single color shirts, most usually a bright yellow shirt.
In 2004, for Hate Annual #5, Bagge started drawing Buddy with a shaved head, wearing a sailor's hat and an eyepatch. This is how he currently appears. Bagge explained this change in Buddy's appearence by saying "I realized Buddy still looked the same as he did when he was a teen, even though I had aged him well into his mid-30s. So I decide to age him visually somehow, while also highlighting his gradual descent into a crazy old coot who works at a dump. He doesn't need the eye patch, of course; it's just an affectation." He also said the decision to change Buddy related to a comedy routine by his collaborator, comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Dana Gould
Dana Gould
Dana John Gould is an American comedian and comedy writer born and raised in Hopedale, Massachusetts. His upbringing and his extended family lent themselves to his stand-up routine, which has been seen on HBO, Showtime, and Comedy Central, among other places.-Career:After high school, he studied...
. "He talks about when he was a kid, his dream job was to be the crazy old guy with one eye that works at the dump. When I was a kid, we’d go to the dump, and I used to wish that I was that guy. So I decided that that should be Buddy."
Other artists who have drawn Buddy are David Coulson, an illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
friend of Bagge's, who drew a Bradleys story which appeared in Weirdo #13 in 1985, and German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
artist Guido Sieber, who drew three Buddy stories in 1998 for a German version of Hate called Kraß (Krass). In this story, Sieber moved the character from Seattle to Berlin. Jim Blanchard was also credited as Art Director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
and was credited alongside Bagge on the title pages on the last 15 issues of Hate.
Neat Stuff
Buddy grew up in an unnamed suburb of Passaic County, New JerseyPassaic County, New Jersey
Passaic County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 501,226. Its county seat is Paterson...
in a Roman Catholic family. As he became a high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
student he had frequent violent disagreements with his family as he tried to find independence and began to question their values. He spent time with schoolfriends Tom and Kevin driving around getting stoned, although he became increasingly isolated from them too. In the story "Hippy House" from Neat Stuff #9 he mentions he believes he was considered the "school weirdo".
He also started spending a lot of his time in second hand
Second Hand
Second Hand is the title of an album by Mark Heard, released in 1991, on Heard's own Fingerprint Records. The album was listed at #4 in the book CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music ....
record stores, where he met Jay, an older role model whom Buddy admired, leading to him become interested in sixties music
1960s in music
For music from a year in the 1960s, go to 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in popular music in the 1960s....
. After graduation
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
he became a small time drug dealer selling marajuana to friends and spending the money on vinyl records.
Buddy ran away from home when a drug deal went wrong, his stash stolen by two small children, leading to him damaging his father's car and leaving his younger brother in a 7 eleven. At first he slept on a polluted beach.
Hate
He then moved with friend Leonard "Stinky" Brown to a building in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. This was demolished after two months, so Buddy moved back to Jersey and lived in Hoboken
Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...
. Stinky and Buddy decided to see the country, moving to Minneapolis on a whim, which they soon regretted.
They set out for the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
and ended up in Seattle, moving into an apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
with the reclusive George. Buddy got a job at a used bookstore. He went to a pool hall
Pool hall
A billiard/billiards, pool or snooker hall is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards...
with Stinky, where he met Valerie and the pair began dating. Buddy had concerns that Valerie may be too high class and intellectual for him. However the couple stayed together for some time, and it was Buddy's first serious relationship
Intimate relationship
An intimate relationship is a particularly close interpersonal relationship that involves physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic or passionate love and attachment, or sexual activity. The term is also sometimes used euphemistically for a sexual...
, with him meeting Valerie's parents. Valerie's housemate, Lisa made a pass at Buddy and tried to warn him off Valerie, which he reacted angrily to, dumping her in a trash can.
Buddy managed a teenage rock band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
, which became locally successful when Buddy made Stinky be lead singer. At the same time Buddy became distant from Valerie as he put more time into the band and she left him, going off with her boss to Paris. Buddy left his rock manager job when he had an argument with the band at the start of their first tour and went back to Seattle.
He began a strange relationship with the mentally unstable Lisa, which led to him quitting his job at the bookstore. He then tried becoming a second hand collectables dealer, but ran into trouble with rival dealer and criminal Yahtzi Murphy making it difficult for him to work in that field in Seattle again.
With his apartment becoming increasingly crowded and scared of reprisals from Murphy, Buddy returned to his parents in Jersey with Lisa following. Buddy bought a second hand monster truck
Monster truck
A monster truck is a pickup truck, typically styled after pickup trucks' bodies, modified or purposely built with extremely large wheels and suspension...
to drive around in.
He reunited with Jay, who suggested they go into the collectables and memorabilia business together. They set up a store
Store
Store may refer to:*a retail store*a place where things are stored, e.g. a ship's paint store*expendables released from an aircraft, such as ordnance or countermeasures*Štore, a town and a municipality in eastern Slovenia...
in Paterson, N.J.
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
, which was fairly successful, but Buddy challenged Jay over his erratic approach to business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
and his drug habit, and ended up buying out Jay's share of the business, becoming the sole owner. In Hate #22 Buddy's father was hit by a truck and died instantly. His mother started dating another man and was never around the house, meaning Buddy's home was taken over by his criminal acquaintances and neighbors.
Buddy moved into the backroom of his store when his mother moved to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
with her new partner.
Buddy's relationship with Lisa got worse, he was confused and angered by her mood swing
Mood swing
-Associated disorders:Mood swings are commonly associated with mood disorders including bipolar disorder and depression. In patients with cases of bipolar disorder, the patient experiences serious mood swings that last for days or even weeks...
s and erratic behaviour, having an unhelpful foray into relationship counselling. Eventually Lisa left him for a bi-sexual co-worker. Buddy tried to track her down with the help of Jay's girlfriend, and found her living in an apartment in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. After going on a series of disastrous dates with other women, Buddy was reunited with a calmer, medicated Lisa and they had sex; he then helped her sneak away from her increasingly domineering girlfriend. At the end of Hate #30, Lisa revealed she was pregnant with Buddy's child, and when she was determined not to get an abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
he marries
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
her, rather than have his son being brought up by Lisa's family or put up for adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
.
Hate Annual
At the start of the Hate Annuals, Buddy was still in New Jersey with his and Lisa's baby Harold, running his collectables business and selling things on EbayEBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
. He was making a good living at it but was bored and felt stuck in a rut. He tried finding a different career, considered becoming a tour guide
Tour guide
A tour guide provides assistance, information and cultural, historical and contemporary heritage interpretation to people on organized tours, individual clients, educational establishments, at religious and historical sites, museums, and at venues of other significant interest...
with Jay and tried being a UPS
United Parcel Service
United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...
delivery man, but he resisted working with his former nefarious
Nefarious
Nefarious may refer to:*Nefarious, an alias for rapper X-Raided*Nefarious, the bassist and vocalist for the band Macabre*"Nefarious", a song by Spoon from their 1996 album TelephonoIt may also refer to:*Count Nefarious, a character in Toonstruck...
friends and acquaintances. Moving to a house next to a junk yard, he eventually went into business with Jay as a scrap
Scrap
Scrap is a term used to describe recyclable and other materials left over from every manner of product consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has significant monetary value...
metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
dealer. He shaved his hair off and started wearing an eyepatch
Eyepatch
An eyepatch or eye pad is a small patch that is worn in front of one eye. It may be a cloth patch attached around the head by an elastic band or by a string, or an adhesive bandage. It is often worn by people to cover a lost or injured eye, but it also has a therapeutic use in children for the...
and sailor hat. He returned to Seattle with Lisa to visit her ailing parents, Lisa deciding to stay and sort out their affairs, so Buddy planned to return home to New Jersey with Harold and look after him on his own for a while.
Personality
Bagge has said the character is semi-autobiographical, being a more bad-tempered, aggressiveAggression
In psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm. Ferguson and Beaver defined aggressive behavior as "Behavior which is intended to increase the social dominance of...
and pessimistic
Pessimism
Pessimism, from the Latin word pessimus , is a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?"...
version of himself.
In their review of the Buddy Does Seattle trade paperback, Publisher's Weekly commented on Buddy: "The title character is perhaps the most honestly portrayed everyman the medium has ever seen, an antihero whose utter obnoxiousness, "who cares" attitude and disdain for everyone and everything around him make him as believable as any comics character can be."
In other media
In October 2009, Fox20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
announced it had commissioned a script for a pilot of The Bradleys cartoon series. The script was to be written by Bagge and Matthew Lawton, who were also to be executive producers along with Barry Katz, Brian Volk-Weiss
Brian Volk-Weiss
Brian Volk-Weiss is an American television and film producer.- Background :Brian Volk-Weiss is New Wave Entertainment's Head of Production/Dynamics and Sr. Vice President of Talent Management...
and Michael Pelmont.
The character appeared in an 2006 Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
television commercial for cellphone company Mo'Mad.
Collected volumes
The original Buddy Bradley stories have been collected in seven trade paperbackTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
volumes, published by Fantagraphics:
- The Bradleys. (from Neat Stuff 1-15)
- Hey Buddy! (from Hate 1-5)
- Buddy the Dreamer (from Hate 6-10)
- Fun with Buddy and Lisa (from Hate 11-15)
- Buddy Go Home! (from Hate 16-20)
- Buddy's Got Three Moms! (from Hate 21-25)
- Buddy Bites the Bullet (from Hate 26-30)
Buddy Does Seattle collects Hate 1-15 in a single volume.
Buddy Does Jersey collects Hate 1994-1998 in a single volume.
Since 2000, Bradley's exploits have continued in Hate Annual.