Peter Bagge & Gilbert Hernandez: Yeah! #1
Last year's final issue of Peter Bagge's long-running comic book Hate marked the end of an era—a well-worn cliché, but in this case an apt one. For years, Hate symbolized all that was good and right about comics for grown-ups in the '90s, with singular artwork, fully formed characters, and sharp humor. Now Bagge is back with, of all things, an all-ages comic for DC bearing a stamp signaling its approval by the Comics Code Authority in place of the familiar "recommended for mature readers" tag. Drawn by Gilbert Hernandez, Yeah! follows the adventures of the all-girl rock band that shares the comic's name. Though struggling to find success in South Orange, New Jersey, Yeah! has the distinction of being the most popular band in outer space, playing to packed crowds of adoring fans on Uranus while reduced to $200 amateur-night contests on Earth. Unapologetically silly, Yeah! is every bit as fun as it sounds. Hernandez's vivid, cartoony art is a pleasure, and Bagge packs the script with funny throwaway gags and over-the-top characters. Unlike Hate, which got a lot of mileage out of the mundane details of life, a comic about a rock band that travels through space isn't required to adhere to a lot of logic, allowing Bagge to get away with a character like Krazy, Yeah!'s Sarah Jessica Parker-lookalike lead singer, who eats only candy and lapses into trances at the drop of a hat. Kids should dig it, and so should anyone looking for a comic with a sense of fun, which has become something of a scarce commodity in recent years. It may not be an era-defining work, but how many of those do you need?