The pronunciation of cartoonist Peter Bagge‘s last name is ironic, since he somehow manages to make his characters on the paper page look as though they were made of plastic. Bagge has brought his malleable style to a variety of genres, from superhero to comedy to social commentary, often combining one or more elements. In his early days, Bagge even worked under the tutelage of comics legend Robert Crumb, and published his early strips in Crumb’s anthology Weirdo. In 1983, Crumb named Bagge editor of the magazine, a position he held for the next three years.Bagge is one of the few artists in comics to work for both independent and mainstream comics publishers. His early work for Fantagraphics, the series Neat Stuff and Hate, introduced both Bagge’s iconic characters the Bradleys as well as Bagge’s “elastic” style, which portrays typical alternative comics themes (such as the alienation of modern youth) in art which borrows from early Warner Brothers cartoons. His first work for a major publisher was 2003′s Sweatshop, the story of a fame-earning cartoonist which drew parallels with Bagge’s own life. This series wasn’t as successful as the long-running Hate series, however.Bagge’s other mainstream work includes “The Incorrigible Hulk,” his take on the Marvel Comics superhero, which was serialized in a 2009 mini-series, and Apocalypse Nerd, a humorous take on two charactersa computer programmer and a “manly man”who must band together after a nuclear attack. The latter series was published by Dark Horse Comics and is available in a collected edition. Bagge’s work has been seen in Reason and Mad magazines, and his most recent graphic novel, Other Lives, was published by DC in 2010. This twisted take on modern-day paranoia and dysfunction represents the latest in the artist’s ever-evolving style, instantly recognizable to his fans but also open to new readers.